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.

Naxals torched a signal set and communication system and partially damaged engine of a goods train at Dumri Bihar railway station in Bokaro, Jharkhand.

The Civil Police received the information early morning today that at around 11:30 pm yesterday, Naxals vandalized the train engine and burnt down the communication system.

The BSE Sensex Friday shot up another 133.86 points to a fresh all-time high of 30,883.89 and the Nifty hit 9,542.85 in early trade on Friday as the June derivatives series took off on a strong footing on encouraging earnings and sustained foreign capital inflows.

The 30-share BSE index climbed 133.86 points, or 0.43%, to trade at a new record of 30,883.89, breaking its previous landmark of 30,793.43 (intra-day) touched in Thursday's trade. The gauge had rallied 448.39 points in the previous session.

DLF, the real estate giant, plans a major entry into the co-work space business. It aims to lease 100,000 sq ft of prime commercial space, initially in the Delhi region and Chennai, to start-ups in the co-working sector over the next couple of years. And, is in talks with New York-based WeWork and other US and Europe-based co-work service entities.

“We are looking at the space. In the next five years or so, we believe it would be around five to seven per cent of (our) total rental revenue. We have had talks with foreign players; a lot of private equity players are interested in this space,” sources in DLF said.

Luxury carmakers, hit by diesel ban in the National Capital Region and demonetisation in recent times, are treading cautiously in the run-up to the Goods and Services Tax (GST). The country’s largest luxury carmaker, Mercedes-Benz, has lowered prices by up to nine per cent with immediate effect to ensure that customers do not postpone purchases to wait for a price benefit that kicks in from July. BMW is offering discounts and benefits until actual price cut happens to keep sales intact. Companies do not want to take any hit on sales.

Tamil superstar Rajinikanth on Thursday issued a stern warning to his fans against indulging in any kind of indiscipline, saying those violating his fans club’s code of conduct would be expelled from it.

The actor did not refer to any specific incident but the message comes close on the heels of his fans going into celebration mode over him hinting at a political entry, and pasting posters on the issue in parts of Chennai and elsewhere.

Union Civil Aviation Minister Ashok Gajapathi Raju today expressed his concern over ‘poor’ financial condition of the airline and said that the government is mulling all options to revive India’s premiere airline, and that even privatisation is not exactly ruled out, an ANI report said. “Air India’s finances are very bad, impoverished part of Air India has to go, but we are looking at all alternatives to revive it,” the minister was quoted as saying by the agency.

India's plans to ban Chinese power firms due to concerns over cyber-attacks could backfire on India even though the move would cause losses to companies from China, a report in a state-run daily said omn Thursday.

"India's reported move to block Chinese companies in the power sector seems to be new evidence of the country's overly suspicious attitude toward China, but this could backfire given that India is still plagued by electricity shortages and unstable supply," an article in the Global Times said.

India's aviation sector is seeing a competition of a whole new level- ruthless slashing of prices. Days after SpiceJet offered domestic as well as international flight tickets for Rs 12 (only base fare, excluding taxes and fees), other airlines like IndiGo and Jet Airways also offered discounts on airfare.

The sale period for the Spicejet offer is from 23rd – 28th May, 2017, while the travel period is from 26th June, 2017 – 24th March, 2018.

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