Indicating a shift in stance, the country's biggest car maker, Maruti Suzuki, says it will not hold back investments in electric vehicles (EVs).

It says it will start work on these as soon as consumer preference for EVs is visible.

Stepping up its crackdown on suspected shell companies, market regulator Sebi has ordered forensic audit of two listed firms -- Kavit Industries and GV Films -- even as it eased some trading curbs on their shares.

In case of GV Films, the regulator said the "balance sheet is disproportionate to the profit and loss of the company" which warrants an independent audit of its asset and liability, even as "there appears to be no prima facie evidence of misuse of the books of the company".

Cash rich Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) will raise its first debt ever, of Rs 25,000 crore, to part fund the Rs 37,000 crore acquisition of government's stake in Hindustan Petroleum Corp Ltd (HPCL).

India's largest oil and gas producer has about Rs 13,000 crore in cash and would need to borrow the rest to fund the buying of government's 51.11 per cent stake in HPCL.

TVS Emerald, the real estate arm of TVS Motor Company and ASK Property Investment Advisors (ASK PIA) have partnered to set up Rs 400 crore real estate investment platform. ASK PIA is the real estate private equity manager of ASK Group.

Both partners will jointly infuse money. The capital raised will be invested in affordable mid-income housing projects, ASK said in a release on Monday.

BENGALURU | MUMBAI: Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) is creating a product brand for its artificial intelligence (AI) product Ignio and has hired from US companies to drive sales of the standalone product, a move that analysts say is akin to building a software company with a different model to its traditional services.

The company is working to ensure the Ignio brand is a standalone — with a separate website that has minimal TCS branding. Digitate, the unit that houses Ignio, is only once referred to as a TCS venture.

Mumbai: A Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) panel on corporate governance is considering whether an auditor should be barred from scrutinizing the books of listed companies if an audit is ineffective and fails to spot financial discrepancies.

It’s the first time the regulator is considering an active monitoring of the role of auditors, currently governed by the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI). The debate on the role and responsibility of auditors started again after some listed banks reported bad loans that diverged widely from the assessment of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).

Coal stocks at thermal power plants across the country have dropped to alarmingly low levels. Private power companies are the worst-hit, as state-run NTPC, under government patronage, is getting out-of-turn supplies.

According to sources from power companies, the shortage of fuel supply is primarily due to reduced production by Coal India (CIL) and its failure to open new mines and commission new railway sidings for seamlessly transporting the dual power plants.

South Korea’s Hyundai Motor said on Monday it had replaced the head of its China operations – an appointment that comes on the heels of a supply disruption and as it struggles to deal with the fallout from a diplomatic row between the two nations. Tao Hung Than, who is of Chinese descent, became CEO of Beijing Hyundai Motor on Friday, replacing Chang Won-shin, a company spokesperson said, without elaborating on the reason for the change. Chang held his job for less than a year. Hyundai was recently forced to halt production for about a week at its joint venture with China’s BAIC Motor Corp Ltd after a fuel-tank components supplier refused to provide parts due to non-payment.

Maruti Suzuki shares which have given stellar returns in the year so far, are still undervalued at these levels says research and brokerage firm CLSA. The shares were trading at Rs 7,838 on Monday morning, and have returned 47% in the year so far. CLSA has a buy rating on the stock with target price of Rs 9,230 per share.

The shares have seen a slight correction in the last one month, down by more than 0.5%. However, in the last three months the scrip has returned nearly 10%. The BSE Sensex is up by by more than 2% in the last three months. Notably, Maruti Suzuki shares have outperformed the index in one, three and five year periods.

Shares of the state-run coal mining company Coal India Ltd (CIL) advanced more than 2% on Monday after the PSU said that India is not facing any scarcity of coal and the output of Coal India is more than the country’s power demand. Coal India – largest producer of coal in the world had registered a high growth rate of 28% output in FY17 over the last fiscal, while the average rise in power demand in the country was at 10.3%, said Chairman and Managing Director Gopal Singh.

Inviting Real Estate Agents, Job Placements Agents, Educational Institutes, Software Service Providers, Real Estate Builders, Marriage Bureaus, Travel Agents, Restaurant Owners, Health & Fitness Centers and other Local Businesses to Post a FREE Classified Advertisement on Cootera.com Classifieds Website.