WhatsApp, the Facebook-owned messaging service that claims a billion users, has launched desktop clients for Mac and Windows. The release comes about 15 months after WhatsApp released its first web app.

People who have already been using WhatsApp on their web browsers will find that software isn’t significantly different. The company said in an announcement “our desktop app is simply an extension of your phone,” with all messages synced between devices.

The Tamil Nadu assembly election on 16 May will essentially be a two-cornered contest between the ruling All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) and the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK).

The collective vote share of the Dravidian parties has, however, declined over the past decade.

New Delhi: The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) plans to leverage its resources to set up an alternative investment fund (AIF), as it aims to ease funding for highway building.

With the ambitious National Investment and Infrastructure Fund yet to take off, government departments are looking at options of their own, at a time when banks are squeezed by asset-liability mismatches and rising bad debt.

Kotak Mahindra Bank Ltd, on Wednesday, reported a 32% rise in net profit for the January-March quarter, owing to an increase in net interest income (NII).

The bank’s net profit for the fourth quarter rose to Rs.695.78 crore, as compared with Rs.527.14 crore a year ago.

In line with equity market, the rupee trimmed its initial losses against the American currency, but was still trading lower by 4 paise to 66.71 per dollar on mild dollar demand from banks and importers despite lower greenback in the overseas market.

The Indian rupee resumed lower at 66.79 per dollar as against the yesterday’s closing level of 66.67 per dollar at the Interbank Foreign Exchange (Forex) Market and dropped further to 66.84 per dollar on heavy dollar demand on concerns that future equity inflows into India would be hit in the aftermath of amendments to the bilateral India-Mauritius tax treaty.

Continuing with improvements in the primary market, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) proposes to reduce the time period for the closing of an Initial Public Offering (IPO) and the date of listing to three days from six days. A decision to this effect is expected to be finalised at its board meeting scheduled for May 20, investment bankers privy to the matter told FE. A reduction in the timeline will help limit risks related to market volatility that may unfold during the period.

Telecom stocks such Idea Cellular, Bharti Airtel and Reliance Communications pared their initial losses after the Supreme Court quashed a TRAI order on compensating consumers for call drop.

The apex court said that TRAI recommendation making it mandatory for telecos to compensate subscribers for call drop is arbitrary, unreasonable and non-transparent.

Market benchmark Sensex fell over 337 points and NSE Nifty dived by 107 points in early trade due to nervous selling by foreign funds amid a revised tax treaty between India and Mauritius imposing capital gains tax on investments routed through the latter from April next.

The rupee, which weakened for the third day against the dollar, also had its bearing on domestic equities.

HDFC Bank wants to accelerate its growth in the credit card segment and capture further market share by aiming to offer 0.4 million credit cards every month, almost double of the number they issue currently.

The lender is the largest issuer of credit card in the country. “About a little more than a year back, we were issuing about 75,000-80,000 credit cards,” said Parag Rao, head (cards, merchant acquiring business & marketing), HDFC Bank. “Right now we are offering around two lakh (0.2 million) cards a month. And we plan to double it to about 4 lakh (0.4 mn) cards in the next 12-15 months.”

As much as Rs 50,000 crore of indirect tax evasion and another Rs 21,000 crore of undisclosed income has been unearthed by the government in the last years.

Finance Ministry in a statement today said the crackdown on black money has led to seizing of Rs 3,963 crore of smuggled goods in two years, a 32% jump over a similar previous period.

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