Air India is drawing up a proposal to offer voluntary buyouts to just over a third of its 40,000 employees, a senior company official said, one of the largest such offers in India's state sector, as the carrier slashes costs ahead of a 2018 sale.

The official, who could not be named as the plans are not public, said the state-owned airline had also put fleet expansion on hold, scrapping a proposal to lease eight Boeing 787 wide-body aircraft. Air India's board approved the proposal in April but nothing further had been done.

Brokerages were pessimistic on the outlook for ITC Ltd after the GST Council yesterday in an unusual move raised the cess on cigarettes, following the implementation of GST earlier this month. Several analysts downgraded their recommendation on ITC shares, which fell as much as 15% intraday, dragging the NSE Nifty down by 80-100 points in the morning trade to below 9,900 and widening the gap for the benchmark index from the milestone of 10,000 points that it has been eyeing for some time now.

HDFC Bank Ltd. is threatening to end Axis Bank Ltd.’s decade-long reign as the largest arranger of rupee-denominated corporate bonds as sales climb to a record for a third straight year.

India’s most valuable bank has managed 481.5 billion rupees ($7.5 billion) of offerings so far this year, jumping 11 notches from 2014 to number two on Bloomberg’s league table. The lender is 95 billion rupees away from claiming the top slot, the data show.

Is gold a dead investment? The Indian gold buyer does not believe so. The Indian penchant for the yellow metal needs no elaboration. While gold as an investment may have had poor returns, there are no brakes on the Indian jewellery buyer. According to data from Goldprice.org, gold has given negative returns, falling 11% in the last one year. Even the long term 5-year return of negative 9.27% is indeed very dismaying, especially given the buoyant returns on the Indian equity benchmark Sensex.

KOLKATA: The government has decided to defer stake sale in Coal India this year after the share price fell sharply, close to a 52-week low, making it impossible to fetch the sum it hoped for, company officials said. The government planned to sell up to a 10% stake in the company by August to raise Rs 20,000 crore. Coal India executives said a divestment would now be considered next year, if the share price improves.

KOLKATA: Apple is close to signing a deal with Shiv Nadar’s HCL Infosystems to forge a distribution partnership to expand its presence in brick and-mortar retail space, particularly in smaller towns, three senior industry executives said.

The deal is likely to be signed this week and the business may take off next month, they said. HCL has a strong presence in distribution, handling mobile phones of Lenovo, Motorola and Nokia among others, Braun’s electric personal gadgets, and Panasonic’s entire range, covering more than 13,000 retail outlets, including neighbourhood mobile phone stores in smaller markets.

NEW DELHI: TVS Motor surpas sed Hero Moto-Corp in scooter sales in the fiscal first quarter, growing at more than 35 per cent when the segment volume at the two-wheeler market leader fell marginally.

The local two-wheeler unit of Honda Motor still perched atop the scooter market with a lead that was nearly three times TVS Motor’s sales in the April-June period.

NEW DELHI: The government has ordered Reliance Industries (RIL), Shell and ONGC to pay a combined $3 billion in penalty following an arbitration award in the Panna Mukta Tapti (PMT) oil field dispute that went in favour of the government, according to people familiar with the matter. RIL and Shell have appealed the arbitration award in a UK court.

The oil ministry sent out a demand notice last month to Reliance and Shell, which own 30% each in the PMT fields off the Mumbai coast, as well as to ONGC that owns the balance 40% participating interest. The three companies have to pay the penalty proportionate to their stake in the fields.

Hindustan Motors, which used to manufacture iconic car Ambassador, is the latest case for insolvency.

Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited (HPCL) has taken the company to National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT).

First unveiled at the 2016 Auto Expo, Tata Motors' new compact SUV, Nexon, is all set to be launched this festive season. The company has recently added two new powertrains to its product portfolio. The first is the 1.2-litre turbocharged petrol from the Revetron series. This is likely to be the same engine that powers Tiago but with an added benefit of a turbocharger that would enhance car performance under the hood of the Nexon series. The second model is the 1.5-litre diesel engine from the Revotorq family.

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.