Bengaluru: Amazon India has received the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) approval to launch its own digital wallet in India, paving the way for the American online retail giant to gain a slice of India’s fast-growing digital payments business.

Amazon India, which had applied for what is called a Prepaid Payment Instrument (PPI) licence nearly a year ago, will now look to take on established rivals such as Paytm and Freecharge as it prepares to launch a prepaid wallet service that will be broader in scope than its Pay Balance service and will not be restricted to Amazon-based transactions.

New Delhi: President Pranab Mukherjee has given assent to four key legislations on goods and services tax (GST), paving the way for the roll out of one-nation-one-tax regime from 1 July.

The legislations were: The Central GST Act, 2017, The Integrated GST Act, 2017, The GST (Compensation to States) Act, 2017, and The Union Territory GST Act, 2017, officials said on Thursday.

New Delhi: Retirement fund body Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation’s (EPFO) subscribers will get loyalty-cum-life benefit of up to Rs50,000 at the time of retirement for contributing to the scheme for 20 years or more. The benefit will also be provided in case of permanent disability even if the members have contributed for less than 20 years, the EPFO board has decided.

EPFO’s apex decision making body, the Central Board of Trustees (CBT), has recommended a minimum sum assured of Rs2.5 lakh in the event of death of a subscriber.

India aims to auction coal blocks for commercial mining by December-end, coal secretary Susheel Kumar told television channel ET NOW on Thursday, a move that would end monopoly of State-run firms in coal mining.

This could help the country to meet its target and produce 1 billion tonnes by 2020.

The head of State Bank of India , the country’s largest lender, said she expects a boost to annual profit of as much as 30 billion rupees ($465 million) in three years on cost and efficiency gains from the absorption of associate banks. Chair Arundhati Bhattacharya also said in an interview that signs of more factory activity pointed to a turnaround in India’s weak credit cycle this financial year – welcome news for a government keen to revive private investment.

Food Safety and Standard Authority of India (FSSAI) has roped in the US-based Decernis Ltd to get access to database of over 70,000 standards for food additives (colorants, flavours & sweeteners), food standards (for example, beverages, cacao, dairy & health claims), food contact and contaminants (such as mycotoxins, heavy metals, pesticides, veterinary drugs & chemicals) from over 170 countries.

As per the agreement, Decernis will facilitate access to various international regulations through a user-friendly online platform. This global database can be searched by any substance or topic (for example, ‘Sweeteners and Syrups’) and text search.

TAL Manufacturing Solutions, a subsidiary of Tata Motors Ltd, has formed a technology partnership with Italy-based RTA Motion Control Systems for motors and drives used in its indigenously developed robot, TAL Brabo. TAL also intends to expand collaboration with Italian firm to explore applications of the Brabo robot in new user industries.

“I am proud to announce a new partnership with RTA Motion Control Systems, a leading Italian based group, for critical components in the TAL Brabo robot.

The country’s largest power generating company NTPC, for the first time, reduced its coal consumption by as much as 5.5 per cent thereby reducing its fuel cost by Rs 1.65 per unit. But at the same time, increased its power sale to 250 billion units. As part of a reorientation to reduce costs but keep its revenues on a growth trajectory, the thermal behemoth is shifting gears across the board.

This resulted in NTPC clocking an average PLF of 78.59 per cent with its pithead plants running at around 83 per cent during the last financial year. This was when the national average PLF was hovering around 60 per cent. At the same time, it crossed the mark of 250 billion units of power sale in 2016-17.

The recent capital raise of `49 billion (30% of December 2016 net worth) has added ~300bp to Yes Bank’s (YES) CET1 ratio (~13%). With an incremental market share of 3.5%+, aggressive roll-out of retail/SME products and strong corporate relationships,YES is expected to register loan CAGR (FY17-20) of 28% – at least 2x of system loan growth. YES has increased its branch strength at a 32% CAGR and SA deposits at a 90% CAGR over FY11-16.

Indian Oil Corp Ltd stock regained momentum today after being under pressure yesterday. The share price surged to a new 52 weeks high of Rs 428.40 intraday on the BSE, up 4.76% from its yesterday’s close of Rs 408.90. The traded volume peaked at 12:19 pm with 57,808,000 shares changing hands as the share price was on the verge of breaking the psychological level of Rs 420 as the market cap of the company surged beyond 200,000 crores.

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