MUMBAI: Larsen & Toubro's electrical and automation unit has bagged an order worth Rs 500 crore Qatar Rail Company (QRAIL) for Phase 1 of Doha Metro, the engineering major said in a release on Thursday.

The order will be executed by L&T Electrical & Automation FZE (LTEAFZE), the competency centre for L&T Electrical & Automation's automation business in UAE. The order entails supply, installation, testing, integration, commissioning and maintenance for five years for 37 stations.

The Sensex rebounded by over 206 points and the NSE Nifty scaled a life-time high of 9,153 (rpt) in opening trade on Thursday amid a firming trend in global markets after the US Fed hiked the key lending rate. The Federal Reserve, as expected, raised the benchmark interest rate by a quarter percentage point, but gave a more dovish outlook for future hikes.

The telecom tribunal on did not stay Reliance Jio's free promotional offer, but asked regulator Trai to "re-examine" issues relating to the approval granted to the operator to continue with the freebies.

The Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT), in its order today, asked Trai to apprise it of the "outcome and findings of the examination" within two weeks.

Application for H-1B work visas, which is highly popular among Indian IT companies and professionals, for financial year 2018 can be filed from April 3.

Unlike previous years, the official announcement by US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) did not say till when it would continue accepting the H-1B petitions.

60-80 per cent of organisations use artificial intelligence (AI) for IT functions, but 70 per cent believe AIs greatest impact by 2020 will be in marketing, customer service, finance and HR, a new study said on Wednesday.

According to global IT consulting firm Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), organisations with the greatest financial improvements from AI investments expect three times as many new AI-related roles by 2020 as compared to companies with smallest improvements.

Ashok Buildcon has moved higher to its 52-week high of Rs 199.65, up 7% on BSE in intra-day trade, after the company said its subsidiary - Ashoka Concessions (ACL) has emerged as the lowest bidder for bid submitted to National Highways Authority of India (NHAI).

ACL had submitted its bid to NHAI for the project viz. request for proposal for six laning of from Ranastalam to Anandpuram (Visakhapatnam) (from km 634.000 to km 681.000) section of NH-5 (New NH- 16) in the state of Andhra Pradesh under NHDP Phase - V (Package II) on Hybrid Annuity Mode Project.

Mahindra & Mahindra's expenditure on research and development (R&D) has grown nearly 30 times, while its revenue rose by 10 times in the last four years. The company is putting a significant amount of energy and money behind R&D, says company's top official.

Pawan Goenka, Managing Director, M&M, who was in Chennai to announce FISITA World Automotive Congress 2018, which he says is the Olympics of automotive technology in the world, said that companies must spend more and more in R&D to remain functional.

The board of State Bank of India (SBI) on Wednesday gave a nod for raising equity capital up to Rs 15,000 crore in the next financial year to shore up capital adequacy. The approval is given to raise equity capital through routes like follow-on public offering (FPO), rights offering, overseas placement and employee stock options, SBI informed the BSE.

SBI executive said nod from the board is an enabling provision. The bank would raise capital from the market at an opportune time, subject to approval from government of India, its majority owner, and banking regulator Reserve Bank of India.

HDFC Bank Ltd is offering loans against shares in about two-three minutes by completely digitising the loan mechanism.

For this, the bank has tied up with National Securities Depository Ltd (NSDL). Shares dematerialised by NSDL and executed through HDFC Bank demat account could be used for pledging. This is a first-of-its-kind initiative in India and probably the first in the world as well. HDFC Bank and NSDL had consulted the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) before developing the product.

Defending itself against the criticism of the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG), Air India has defended the sale of five Boeing 777-200 LR planes to Etihad, saying it was the best option to check loss and reduce debt.

The CAG has criticised Air India for selling the aircraft below its indicative market price, under-reporting its losses and poor initiatives to monetise its real estate.

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