MUMBAI: State Bank of India and Bank of Baroda have taken the lead in setting lower lending rates based on the Marginal Cost Lending Rate system that will benefit millions of borrowers. However, those who have home loans may not get the benefits every quarter as rates may be reset once a year. But the flip side of it is that they wouldn't be hurt immediately whenever the rates go up either.

HDFC Bank is set to raise up to Rs 5,000 crore by way of infrastructure bonds. Rating agency CRISIL has assigned AAA/Stable rating to the bond issuance.

“The ratings on HDFC Bank’s debt instruments continue to reflect the bank’s established market position, healthy capitalisation supported by strong asset quality, comfortable resource profile, and robust earnings performance,” said a note from CRISIL.

The likely 17 percent cut in domestic natural gas prices to be announced by the government today would impact earnings of upstream players including the largest petroleum explorer Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) and Oil India (OIL). But the cut in prices will shower significant savings on consumers in the user industries of power and fertilizer and the city gas consumers using Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) and Piped Natural Gas (PNG).

Infrastructure giant Larsen & Toubro (L&T) on Thursday said it has sold its entire 89% stake in L&T Infocity Ltd (LTIL) to Hyderabad-based Ace Urban Developers Ltd for Rs 191 crore.

L&T Infocity Ltd is an special purpose vehicle (SPV) formed by the infrastructure major in partnership with Andhra Pradesh Infrastructure Investment Corporation (APIIC) to develop IT infrastructure in the state.

Mumbai: The Indian rupee on Thursday strengthened for the fifth consecutive sessions against the dollar helped by continued interest from foreign institutional investors in the local equity market. The rupee has recouped most of its losses it saw earlier this year and was trading just 0.04% lower so far in calendar year 2016.

At 2.05pm, the home currency was trading at 66.17, up 0.32% from its previous close of 66.39. The rupee opened at 66.36 and touched a high of 66.17—a level last seen on 1 January.

Mumbai: State Bank of India (SBI), the country’s largest lender, on Thursday announced its marginal cost of funds-based lending rate (MCLR). The new rate setting structure, which asks banks to price loans based on the marginal cost of deposits rather than average cost, comes into effect from 1 April.

At SBI, the MCLR for loans upto one year maturity will be lower than its current base rate of 9.30% while those on two year and above maturity will be marginally above its base rate.

Defence and security company Saab and Hinduja group flagship Ashok Leyland (ALL) have joined hands to manufacture truck simulators in India under the ‘Make in India’ concept.

The two companies signed a teaming agreement at the end of 2015. The simulator is based in the original Ashok Leyland cabin with Saab simulation technology integrated with it, said a press statement in Chennai on Wednesday.

Microsoft’s India-born CEO Satya Nadella on Wednesday outlined the technology giant’s vision to combine the power of human language with advanced machine intelligence as he announced new updates to the operating system Windows 10 to create more personal computing for every customer.

“As an industry, we are on the cusp of a new frontier that pairs the power of natural human language with advanced machine intelligence,” Nadella said in his keynote address to thousands of developers at Build 2016, its annual mega-gathering of developers that kicked-off today where the company presents its latest tools and technologies.

Pressure is mounting on Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu to raise passenger fares. The Railway bureaucracy has compared bus fares with fares of general and sleeper classes on popular routes to make the point that train fares are suppressed.

According to the calculations, a small tube of toothpaste costs more than the lowest train fare from Delhi to Chandigarh. The bus fares for the route are much more.

NEW DELHI: Air India on Wednesday suspended one of its senior commanders for refusing to operate an inaugural flight at the last minute. The airline had introduced a number of new flights in the current summer schedule that kicked in from this Sunday.

"One of the new routes was Bhopal-Mumbai that was to start on Monday evening. The aircraft for the first flight, an Airbus A-320, to fly on this route was to go from Delhi. But the senior commander who had to operate the aircraft (for the inaugural flight) refused at the last minute and disappeared from Delhi airport," said a senior AI official.

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.