Mahindra and Mahindra (M&M), country’s largest utility vehicle manufacturer, on Friday reported a 33.29% y-o-y increase in its standalone net profit to R10,860.05 crore for the quarter ended December 31 as a result of an exceptional gain of R363.78 crore from the sale of investments in subsidiary companies.

The company had reported a net profit of R834.47 crore in the corresponding period last fiscal.

State Bank of India (SBI) has more than doubled net profits in the December 2016 quarter to R2,610 crore. Profits were buoyed by treasury profits and the proceeds of R1,755 crore that came in from the sale of a 3.9% stake in its life insurance arm, SBI Life. SBI’s other income jumped 59% year-on-year to R9,662 crore with the profits on sales of investments trebling to R3,969 core and a 14% rise in fee income to R4,011 crore. The profits came off a small base — in the December 2015 quarter, provisions for non-performing assets (NPAs) had soared following the asset quality review (AQR).

Diversified group ITC plans to set up multi-specialty hospitals and leverage its experience in hospitality for tapping into the expanding medical tourism segment in India. The Kolkata-based firm, better known for FMCG products and cigarettes, is seeking approval from shareholders through a special resolution to alter its Memorandum of Association in order to be able to foray into the healthcare sector.

The board of directors of the company has “recommended exploring and entering the area of health in India by way of setting up state of the art world class multi specialty hospitals”, ITC said in a notice to the shareholders.

Siemens Ltd. announced the acceptance of an order worth Rs. 101 crore from Delhi Transco Limited, on Saturday. The order includes installing 220/66/33kV Gas Insulated Substation (GIS) at R.K. Puram, New Delhi. Delhi Transco Limited is the State Transmission Utility of New Delhi. To enhance its efficiency and productivity, Delhi Transco Limited is using state-of-the-art technologies in its operations. Keeping in view the land constraints and environmental hazards, DTL is prioritising GIS in place of Air Insulated Substations (AIS), since GIS are both reliable and maintenance-friendly, and contribute to improved quality of power in the system.

A day after being named the next Sebi chief, senior bureaucrat Ajay Tyagi said it is a big responsibility and he is looking forward to handling it.

As Chairman of the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi), Tyagi will oversee regulation and surveillance of capital markets and all the market infrastructure entities such as stock exchanges and intermediaries including brokerage firms, mutual funds, FPIs, investment banks and rating agencies, as also thousands of listed companies.

Ford will invest $1 billion over five years in an artificial intelligence startup with the aim of developing an autonomous vehicle by 2021, the auto giant said.

Ford will take a majority stake in Argo AI, an artificial intelligence company based in Pittsburgh, started in late 2016 by former Google and Uber employees who had worked on autonomous driving.

Hinduja Group flagship company and commercial vehicles major Ashok Leyland Ltd (ALL) is eyeing a one-third share of the intermediate commercial vehicles (ICV) market in the country within the next couple of years.

ALL, which is already in the process of expanding its international footprint through establishing manufacturing assembly sites, is also targeting one-third of its total volumes coming from foreign shores in the next five years.

Markets regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India's (Sebi) board will meet on Saturday to take forward reform measures and discuss amending Debenture Trustee regulations, steps taken regarding P-notes, collective investment scheme and cases involving NSE and NSEL.

Before the meeting, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley will also address Sebi's board and top officials on steps announced in the Union Budget with regard to capital markets and overall economy.

BSE benchmark Sensex surged over 126 points and NSE Nifty reclaimed the 8,800-level in early trade on Friday as domestic investors and foreign funds indulged in sustained buying ahead of key industrial output numbers to be released later in the day.

Besides, better-than-expected earnings by some more companies also fuelled the positive sentiment.

WhatsApp on Friday rolled out a two-step verification process for all devices to enhance the security of users’ accounts. WhatsApp has been working on two-step verification for the past several months.

“When you have the feature enabled, any attempt to verify your phone number on WhatsApp must be accompanied by the six-digit passcode that you choose,” WhatsApp said in a statement.

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