Even as 50 days have passed since the announcement of demonetisation by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on November 8, cash crunch continues as only 35-40% of the 2.2 lakh ATMs in the country are dispensing cash, according to leading deployers. What has increased woes of many people is the fact that most of the ATMs are dispensing only Rs 2000 notes. Moreover, banks are yet to start over-the-counter payments in Rs 500 notes properly. Reason: The number of Rs 500 notes available is very less and it would take more time for the situation to normalise.

State-run BSNL is planning to take on lease about 15,000 point of sale machines to enable more customers to use digital methods of bill payment, and sees digital transactions accounting for up to 40% of all bill payments by March 2017, nearly double of current levels.

"We are in the process of leasing about 15,000 point of sale (PoS) machines to be used by customer service centres so that electronic payment can be encouraged.

GE Power India surged 7% to Rs 485 on the BSE in intra-day trade after the company received contract worth of Rs 271 crore from Bharat Heavy Electricals (BHEL) for supply of components and services for 2 thermal power projects in Tamil Nadu.

“The company has been awarded a contract worth approximately Rs 271.1 crore (i.e. approximately US $ 40 million) by Bharat Heavy Electricals (BHEL) to supply components and services for the supercritical steam generator island packages,” GE Power India said in a BSE filing.

Reliance Industries (RIL) hit a two-month high of Rs 1,084, up 1.8% in intra-day trade on Friday, extending its Thursday’s 1% gain on the BSE after the company said it commissioned the first phase of Para-xylene (PX) plant at Jamnagar, Gujarat.

The stock was trading at its highest level since October 21, 2016. It hit a 52-week high of Rs 1,129 on September 26, 2016 in intra-day trade.

Mumbai: A sudden spurt in buying at the fag end of the trading lifted markets higher on Thursday as the Sensex rebounded over 155 points to end at almost two-week high of 26,366 as December derivatives contracts expired amid recovery in the rupee.

The broader NSE Nifty,too, regained the key 8,100-mark. The rupee strengthened by 18 paise against the dollar at 68.06 (intra-day), which helped sentiment improve. Marked by volatility, the rally was supported by gains, mainly in consumer durables, oil and gas, metal, auto, power, IT and PSU stocks, which turned attractive at current levels after recent losses.

Why were Rs 1000 and Rs 500 notes demonetised by the government? Fifty days after the government announced that these notes would cease to be legal tender, Reserve Bank of India feels that the reasons behind the sudden announcement cannot be made public.

The monetary policy regulator also refused to give any details about the time it will take to replenish the currency notes. “The query is in the nature of seeking future date of an event which is not defined as information as per Section 2(f) of the RTI Act,” RBI said in response to an RTI query.

Global tech giant Microsoft ruled the roost in 2016 in the world of technology making acquisitions and profits all over. With hundreds of millions of devices running Windows 10, Microsoft had reportedly earned billions of dollars of revenue in the past year. Microsoft also made a big acquisition, LinkedIn along with a launch of the Slack competitor called Teams. But most importantly, after Satya Nadella took over as the CEO of the company, its focus on Cloud computing has reaped huge dividends and will continue doing so. Interestingly, once a closed software system, Microsoft also embraced open source in this period. The result can be seen in its amazing new product launches.

Mumbai: A group of private equity (PE) and hedge funds representing minority shareholders of Reliance Infratel Ltd, the telecom tower arm of Anil Ambani’s Reliance Communications Ltd (RCom), have demanded that RCom buy their stakes back before going ahead with its majority stake sale to Brookfield Infrastructure Group, two people aware of the development said on condition of anonymity.

The National Stock Exchange (NSE) on Wednesday filed draft papers with market regulator SEBI for its much-awaited IPO. The IPO is expected to be one of the biggest in recent times, with an estimated size of over Rs, 10,000 crore.

The initial public offer will see existing shareholders offloading 20-25 per cent shares to the public through the OFS route.

Giving a major fillip to its innovation-packed product line-up, Chennai-based auto major TVS Motor Co has been granted an Indian patent for automatic hybrid transmission (AHT) system for two-wheelers. The invention for which exclusivity has now been provided by Chennai patent office is related to a system involving a combination of a fixed speed transmission mechanism (FSTM) and a continuously variable transmission mechanism (CVTM).

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