As widely expected, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Friday sailed through the crucial floor test in the Bihar Assembly with a convincing margin of 131 votes. Nitish kick-started his fresh stint by launching a full-scale attack on the Rashtriya Janata Dal’s (RJD’s) first family, calling their secularism “a mask for corruption”.

Four members of the 243-member Assembly couldn’t vote, reducing the total strength of the House to 239. The new NDA government needed 120 votes to win the vote. The 131 votes in favour of Nitish comprised the Janata Dal (United)’s 70, BJP’s 52, LJP’s two, RLSP’s two, HAM’s one and four Independent MLAs. On the other hand, 108 MLAs — 79 from RJD, 26 from Congress and three CPI (ML) lawmakers — voted against the motion.

To kill a domestic (cigarette) brand in favour of a smuggled one is not in the interest of the country, ITC chairman Y C Deveshwar said at a press conference following the company’s annual general meeting.

The cigarette industry is facing one of the steepest rates of taxation, with the Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council recently increasing the cess on this. In six years, taxes have gone up by 202 per cent.

State-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) has won government approval for acquisition of Gujarat State Petroleum Corporation’s (GSPC) entire 80 per cent holding in a KG basin gas block for Rs 7,738 crore, the company said.

ONGC had in December last year agreed to buy the entire 80 per cent interest of GSPC along with operatorship rights, in Deen Dayal West (DDW) gas field in Block KG-OSN-2001/3 in the Bay of Bengal for $995 million (Rs 6,443 crore).

BSNL mobile subscribers will soon be able to piggyback on the network of private telecom player Vodafone in Delhi and Mumbai.

The move will improve the coverage of BSNL's mobile network in these two areas where it doesn't offer services.

The benchmark BSE Sensex soared to a fresh life-time high of 32,533.34 and the NSE Nifty hit a new high of 10,068.40 in opening trade today on continued buying by investors driven by encouraging earnings by corporate amid positive global cues.

Short-covering of bets, today being the last session of July expiry in the derivatives segment, kept the sentiment upbeat.

Ford Motor Co. Is recalling nearly 1,17,000 vehicles because the bolts in the seat, seat belt or seat belt buckle may fracture.

The recall involves the 2014 F-Series pickup, 2014 E- Series van, 2014-2015 Ford Escape and the 2015 Lincoln MKC SUV. Most of the affected vehicles are in the US, but there are 20,681 in Canada and 1,510 in Mexico.

ICICI Bank hit two-year high of Rs 315, up 1.6% on BSE in early morning trade, ahead of the release of its April-June (Q1FY18) results today.

The stock is currently trading at its highest level since March 13, 2015 and nearly 14% away from its all-time high of Rs 358 touched on January 28, 2015 in intra-day trade.

At first glance, Indian telecoms upstart Jio's bet on 'free' internet-enabled phones to win over poorer customers is a near-fatal blow for low-end handset makers, most already struggling with paper-thin margins on some of the world's cheapest devices.

But industry executives and analysts say Jio's crossover feature phone - not quite a smartphone, not quite a no-frills handset - could, in fact, be a boon to the lower end of the market and suppliers that feed it, creating a new in-between category and getting more people online for the first time.

Benchmark indices ended the day higher with Nifty50 settling above the 10,000-mark for the first time. Sensex, too, ended at fresh closing high for the day led mainly by gains in metal, pharma stocks.

Expectations of a better earnings season with improving economic indicators have increased investor confidence, extending a record-setting rally this year, although high valuations are seen capping gains in the near term.

HMD Global, the Finnish company manufacturing Nokia-branded smartphones, is expected to launch its flagship Nokia 8 on August 16. According to online technology news portal The Verge, HMD has already started sending out media invites to an event in London.

The news about the Nokia 8 was first reported by Evan Blass, a credible source in the technology community, through his Twitter channel. Blass shared a picture of Nokia 8 media renders that showed the device's front and back side.

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