India’s state-owned oil companies aim to sustain spending near a three-year high, encouraged by falling oil-services costs and expanding demand. The country’s largest oil refiner Indian Oil Corp. will boost domestic spending by a quarter in the year to March 31 and smaller processor Hindustan Petroleum Corp. plans to invest about 17 percent more this year. Oil and Natural Gas Corp., the biggest explorer and top spender, plans to invest as much as last year. The 11 state-owned companies spent more than one trillion rupees ($16 billion) in the year ended March 31, the highest since 2014.

Continuing to maintain his see-sawing attitude towards the recent criticism over his remarks on joining politics, Tamil superstar Rajinikanth on Friday rhetorically said the people would see what happens when the "ultimate war" comes.

"I have responsibilities and works, same with you. Let's do it, but when the ultimate war comes, we all will see," he said.

The International Court of Justice (ICJ) decision in the Kulbhushan Jadhav case on Thursday, asking Pakistan to "take all measures at its disposal" to ensure that he isn't executed till its final judgment, is binding on the Pakistan government. Jadhav is currently in a Pakistani jail.

Simply put, Pakistan won't be able to execute Jadhav till the ICJ's final decision.

A special court here on Friday convicted former coal secretary H C Gupta in a coal scam case.

Special CBI Judge Bharat Parashar also convicted the coal ministry's then joint secretary KS Kropha and then director K C Samaria besides others in the case pertaining to alleged irregularities in allocation of Thesgora-B Rudrapuri coal block in Madhya Pradesh to KSSPL.

Tightening the screws further on absconding liquor baron Vijay Mallya, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Thursday took possession of his seafront farmhouse worth Rs 100 crore in Raigad district of Maharashtra's Konkan region, an official said here.

The farmhouse, sprawled over 17 acres with a beach, is located in the picturesque Kolegaon village of Mandwa, near the tourist hotspot of Alibaug.

Following other prominent banks, the country's third largest private sector lender Axis Bank on Thursday announced 30 basis points (bps) reduction in its home loan interest rates to promote affordable housing finance.

"Taking forward its commitment towards affordable housing finance, the bank has revised its rates for home loans up to Rs 30 lakh for the salaried segment to 8.35 per cent, the lowest in the industry," the bank said in a statement here.

Indian state-run Bank of Baroda on Thursday reported a fourth-quarter net profit of Rs 155 crore ($23.89 million).

The Mumbai-based bank, the fifth-biggest in the country by assets, had reported a net loss of Rs 3,230 crore in the year-ago quarter.

India’s leading mobile wallet and payments company Paytm has reportedly raised $1.4 billion from Japanese investor SoftBank in its largest funding to date, months after roping in China’s Alibaba as an investor into its marketplace business unit.

Softbank, an early investor in the e-commerce giant Alibaba, will take a seat on the board of Paytm, ET Now reported citing agency reports. The report said that Paytm will use the funds to expand user base and build financial products.

Market regulator Sebi has sought clarification from Aditya Birla Group firm Idea Cellular regarding its proposed merger with Vodafone Plc’s Indian unit. Besides, the companies approached the Competition Commission of India (CCI) last month regarding the proposed merger and are awaiting the fair trade regulator’s nod in this regard.

In March, Vodafone India and Idea Cellular announced merger of their operations to create the country’s largest mobile phone operator worth more than $23 billion with a 35 per cent market share.

Nasscom today refuted reports of mass layoffs in the IT sector saying the industry will hire about 1.5 lakh people this year on “net” basis although techies will have to re-skill themselves to stay relevant. Over the past few weeks, there have been reports suggesting that over 50,000 people could be laid off this year from companies like Wipro, Infosys and Cognizant. “We categorically reject the reports of mass layoffs in the sector. FY2017 saw 1.7 lakh people being added, while in Q4 alone, the gross hiring was of over 50,000 by top five companies,” Nasscom President R Chandrashekhar told reporters here.

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