State-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) has said that producing natural gas is no longer a profitable business for the company as the government-mandated gas price is significantly below the cost of production.

The BJP-led government had in October 2014 evolved a new pricing formula using rates prevalent in gas surplus nations like the US, Canada and Russia to determine rates in a net importing country. Prices have halved to $2.48 per million British thermal unit since the formula was implemented.

Security forces dealt a major blow to Hizbul Mujhadeen on Saturday when they killed one of the most wanted commanders Sabzar Ahmad Bhat along with his aide at Saimoo village in Tral area of South Kashmir’s Pulwama district.

Elsewhere, the army foiled a major infiltration bid and killed six militants on the Line of Control in Rampur sector of Uri in North Kashmir’s Baramulla district.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has filed an FIR against Director (IT) of the CBSE Antriksh Johri, the representative of Venus Digital Service and Venus Digital Service, Kapil Soorma, besides some other unidentified officials of the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) in connection with the National Eligibility Test (NET) scam.

The FIR has been made on the allegation that the NET this year seemed to be hanging in the balance, as the private firm which was given the contract to scan the answer sheets had not been able to complete the work, prompting the CBI to file an FIR against it.

On the completion of three years in power, Prime Minister Narendra Modi's pre-poll pitch Sabka Saath Sabka Vikas gave way to a new slogan, Saath hai, Vishwas hai, ho raha Vikas hai.

Modi travelled to Assam to kick-start the Making Of Developed India (MODI) Fest in Assam with a day-long series of programmes at four venues. More importantly, PM Modi inaugurated the 9.15 km-long Bhupen Hazarika bridge — the longest in India — named after the region's beloved singer, between Dhola and Sadiya Ghat over Lohit river.

BENGALURU: Founder Chairman of Infosys N R Narayana Murthy on Friday expressed sadness over the IT companies laying off their employees as part of their cost cutting strategy.

"...It is sad...," Murthy told in an email reply to a PTI query about recent IT layoffs. Murthy, however, did not elaborate on the matter.

Mumbai: State Bank of India, the country’s largest lender by assets, picked Bank of America Corp. and Deutsche Bank AG to arrange a share sale that could raise about $2 billion, people with knowledge of the matter said.

The lender also chose IIFL Holdings Ltd., Kotak Mahindra Bank Ltd., JM Financial Ltd. and SBI Capital Markets Ltd. to work on the offering, according to the people, who asked not to be identified because the information is private. SBI aims to start the share sale as soon as next month, the people said.

Canadian export credit agency, Export Development Canada (EDC) has given a $215 million loan to India’s third largest telecom operator, Idea Cellular. The loan is under a pre-existing $500 million uncommitted financing arrangement for the Aditya Birla Group (ABG). Under the arrangement, EDC provides financing support to the broader group companies under the ABG banner for transactions that are of strategic importance to both EDC and the Group, the agency said.

Indian Oil Corporation’s (IOC) chairman B Ashok will sign off on a high when he demits office on May 31 as the company registered a 70% growth in annual profit for 2016-17 and an 85% jump for the quarter ended March 31, 2017. Ashok will be succeeded by Sanjiv Singh who is currently the director for refineries.The country’s largest oil marketing company posted a net profit of Rs19,106 crore for 2016-17 compared with Rs11,242 crore in the previous financial year, and the net profit for the fourth quarter of 2016-17 stood at Rs3,721 crore compared with Rs2,006 crore in the year-ago period.

The country’s second largest commercial vehicle manufacturer, Ashok Leyland on Thursday beat estimates by reporting a net profit of Rs476 crore during the January-March quarter against a net loss of Rs140 crore during the same period last year on the back of healthy demand for its products in the medium and heavy vehicles segment.

Due to higher demand for trucks and buses, net sales during the period increased 10.79% y-o-y to Rs6,617.89 crore.

After former foreign minister Yashwant Sinha's track II initiative, it is now the turn of Congress leader and former union minister Mani Shankar Aiyer-led team to embark on Mission Kashmir 2.0 and engage with the separatists and mainstream leaders in Kashmir.

Aiyer led five member team of Centre for Peace and Progress on Thursday called on Hurriyat hawk Syed Ali Shah Geelani and moderate leader Mirwaiz Umar Farooq at their residences and discussed Kashmir with the two separatist leaders.

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