The 9% drop in Ashok Leyland Ltd’s June quarter truck sales may have been partly due to BS-IV transition and goods and services tax (GST) implementation issues.

This was also very untimely in that the regulatory changes came amid rising costs that accelerated at a faster pace than sales growth. Obviously, it dented the June quarter’s profitability severely.

Tech companies are keen to bring cool artificial intelligence features to phones and augmented reality goggles—the ability show mechanics how to fix an engine, say, or tell tourists what they are seeing and hearing in their own language. But there’s one big challenge: how to manage the vast quantities of data that make such feats possible without making the devices too slow or draining the battery in minutes and wrecking the user experience.

Microsoft Corp. says it has the answer with a chip design for its HoloLens goggles—an extra AI processor that analyzes what the user sees and hears right there on the device rather than wasting precious microseconds sending the data back to the cloud.

The latest financial performance of the big three of Indian IT industry—Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) , Infosys and Wipro—underscores the fact that the macro-economic challenges still persist with business momentum not picking up and net profits dropping. In short, the prospects of a double digit growth rate is still far away. The first quarter of FY18 for this top three companies has been consistent on one point —declining net profits. If TCS’s net profit dropped on a quarter-on-quarter (QoQ) basis by 10%, it was 3.3% for Infosys and 8% in the case of Wipro. The twin factors which affected their bottomline performance were wages hikes and the appreciating rupee against the US dollar.

Solar power developers are set to oppose the recent directive of the Uttar Pradesh government asking them to lower tariffs under extant power purchase agreements (PPAs). While indications are that the regulator’s view is also not favourable to them, developers might resort to litigation. Stating that PPAs had been signed when equipment prices were high, the government asked developers to revise tariffs to match the lowest bid of Rs 7.02 per kwH in relevant auction. The government’s move was also prompted by the fall in solar power tariffs in subsequent auctions conducted in the country.

NEW DELHI: Reliance Retail and Reliance Jio will be “hyper growth platforms” for the Mukesh Ambani-led conglomerate in the next 10 years — which the company calls its golden decade.

Reliance Industries sees robust and sustainable growth in both consumer-facing sectors, apart from strong cash flows from its flourishing core businesses of energy and petrochemicals, as it reaps rewards of ambitious capital expenditure in recent years, it said in a presentation after the quarterly earnings.

The BSE Sensex hit record high of 32,135.91 points and Nifty touched life-time high of 9,939.30 in opening trade on buying in oil and gas on Monday, IT and banking stocks after better-than-expected financial results.

Gains in Reliance Industries, FMCG major ITC, Infosys, ICICI Bank and SBI helped the indices scale new peaks in early trade.

Finance minister Arun Jaitley on Friday introduced a bill in the Lok Sabha to repeal certain Acts, a move that was legally necessary in the wake of the merger of State Bank of India (SBI) with its subsidiary banks from April 1 this year. The finance minister introduced the State Banks (Repeal and Amendment) Bill, 2017 to repeal the State Bank of India (Subsidiary Banks) Act, 1959 and the State Bank of Hyderabad Act, 1956. In February, the Cabinet had also approved the merger of five associate banks with SBI, paving the way for the first such wide-scale consolidation exercise to create a banking behemoth.

Silver surged by Rs 600 to Rs 39,350 per kg at the bullion market today, largely in sync with a firm trend overseas and increased offtake by industrial units. Gold, however, held steady at Rs 29,150 per ten gram in scattered deals. Traders attributed the spike in silver prices to positive global cues and pick-up in demand from industrial units at the domestic spot market. Globally, the white metal rose by 1.20 per cent to USD 16.50 an ounce and gold by 0.84 per cent to USD 1,254.50 an ounce in New York in yesterday’s trade.

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) on Friday said that operators have reached a consensus on continuing with the current forbearance regime of fixing mobile tariffs and decided not to pursue their earlier demand of having a minimum floor price for voice and data. Speaking to reporters after a meeting with the operators, Trai chairman RS Sharma said, “There were detailed discussions for about two hours and the consensus at the end of the meeting was that for the time being, as of now, we do not see the need to pursue the idea of fixing a floor price”.

Ford Motor Co will petition to avoid a U.S. recall of about 2.5 million vehicles with Takata air-bag inflators that the Japanese auto supplier declared defective last week, U.S. regulators and the automaker said on Friday. Separately, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said Nissan Motor Co agreed to recall 515,394 2007-2011 Versa cars after Takata declared 2.7 million vehicles to have potentially defective inflators. Ford spokesman John Cangany said the automaker will file a petition requesting “to continue testing and analyzing our inflators.”

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