Mumbai: Indian shares ended lower on Friday, after fluctuating earlier in the session, as overall sentiment remained dented after US Federal Reserve chair Janet Yellen signalled an interest rate hike was imminent, while investors back home were worried about the government’s move to remove high-value notes. The gauge had plunged by 1,290.06 points in the previous four sessions.

The Narendra Modi-led central government has on several occasions chest-thumped about having changed the fortunes of Air India and Air India Express. Only recently it announced that Air India had made a profit after long. However, it turns out, some part of this profit would have been made by charging senior citizens booking tickets online as much as three times the normal adult airfare across sectors in India.

Thousands of people above the age of 60 years – pensioners, retired people, armed forces personnel and others – use Air India every month. The government-run airline seems to have charged these people at much higher rates than usual, even as they are entitled to concessionary airfare.

State Bank of India (SBI) has written to Reserve Bank of India (RBI) seeking further relaxation of the scheme for sustainable structuring of stressed assets (S4A), said two bankers aware of the development.

“Any kind of restructuring plan needs to allow either reduction of interest rates, extension of repayment period or additional funding for troubled borrowers.

Berlin: Indian software service group Infosys is bracing for pressure on its US business from anti-immigrant policies by US president-elect Donald Trump, who has identified clamping down on immigration as one of his three top priorities.

“Margins might be impacted in the near-term,” chief executive Vishal Sikka said, adding the company had not yet done any simulations on how large the impact may turn out to be.

Ford Motor Co on Thursday lowered the 2017 pretax profit forecast for its financial services arm by $300 million due to lower auction values for used vehicles in the United States.

The company now expects Ford Credit to record a pretax profit of about $1.5 billion in 2017.

Moving ahead with sale of Sahara assets to recover money, regulator Sebi today lined up as many as five land parcels of the beleaguered group for an e-auction next month at a total reserve price of over Rs 130 crore.

Earlier, 13 properties were put on the block in October and their combined reserve price was about Rs 1,400 crore.

The Indian research and development wing of global luxury car maker Mercedes-Benz plans to recruit another 1,000 people next year to further its research and development (R&D).

Currently, the R&D staff in India accounts for 3,500 people, up from 700 only five years earlier.

Tata Motors became the first company in India to introduce liquefied natural gas-fuelled bus in Kochi recently. As it awaits a final notification from the government recognising LNG as an automotive fuel, the company sees a big market for these vehicles, especially in coastal areas with good connectivity to LNG terminals.

Speaking to Business Standard, Ajit Jindal, head, engineering, commercial vehicles, passengers, said LNG could be used as an alternative fuel to diesel.

Reliance Industries (RIL) has entered into a global partnership agreement with NYSE-listed GE to enter in the Industrial Internet of Things (IIOT) space by building joint applications on the latter's Predix platform, it said on Thursday.

Predix-based apps connect industrial equipment, analyse data and deliver real-time insights. The two partners aim to provide IIOT solutions to customers in oil & gas, fertiliser, power, health care and telecom, among other sectors.

Senior Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad on Thursday said that more people died due to demonetisation scheme by government than that in terrorist attacks by Pakistan. This lead to heated exchange of arguments between treasury and opposition benches as BJP took objection to the leader’s remark. Azad said that 40 people had died following government’s decision on demonetisation. Even lesser number of people had died in firing by Pakistani terrorists in Uri, he said. Terming the remarks as “anti-national”, IB Minister Venkaiah Naidu demanded an apology from the entire Congress party. Naidu also asked Deputy Chairman P J Kurien to expunge the statement.

Inviting Real Estate Agents, Job Placements Agents, Educational Institutes, Software Service Providers, Real Estate Builders, Marriage Bureaus, Travel Agents, Restaurant Owners, Health & Fitness Centers and other Local Businesses to Post a FREE Classified Advertisement on Cootera.com Classifieds Website.