L&T electrical and Automation, the $1 billion unit of Larson and Toubro, expects infrastructure projects by the government and investment in upgrading existing factories by corporates to drive business faster over the next few years. The firm says that business from upgrading switches and drives contributes to 13% of its revenue, up from 5% a few years ago.

"When somebody is not setting up new factories, they want to extend the life of their existing installations," said PK Bajaj, executive vice-president, L&T (Electrical & Automation) in an interview. "We hear words like upgrades, add one line, debottle-necking lot more than new capacities. These are efforts to release those capacity which otherwise they are not bothered," he added.

Widespread protests by Jats seeking caste-based reservations in several parts of Haryana has crippled the supply of components to automakers, forcing players like Maruti Suzuki to temporarily suspend production at its two plants in the state.

The country’s largest carmaker said it has suspended production at its Gurgaon and Manesar plants starting Saturday afternoon.

After Friday’s surge, gold declined by Rs 40 to Rs 29,250 per ten grams in bullion market on Saturday, owing to slackened demand from jewellers and retailers amid weak overseas cues.

Traders said apart from muted demand from jewellers and retailers at prevailing levels, a weak trend overseas mainly led to the fall in prices.

Eight corporate jets which were submerged under flood water at Chennai airport in December are being written off as the damage is beyond repairs.

Insurance companies say that the aircraft parts will be sold for scrap to recover part of the costs. “The damages to the jets and its parts are severe and cannot be restored. Hence, we will have to dismantle and sell parts as scrap, though we will only be able to recover 20-30 per cent of the costs,” said chairperson and managing director of a large public sector general insurer which had exposure to these jets.

As the Jat stir for quota continued, some unidentified persons set on fire the Budha Khera Railway Station in Jind district today.

The furniture, record room and other articles were set on fire at the railway station, which falls on the Jind-Panipat rail section, police said.

‘Freedom 251’ mobile priced at a sensational Rs 251 by Ringing Bells company first elicited amazement from all and sundry and then caused consternation to break out as the website freedom251.com crashed after tens of thousands of people tried to log onto the website to book the cheapest smartphone in the world, but to no avail. The result was that a lot of people were disappointed as the site crashed and stayed inoperative for 2 days running – those who actually found their way to the company’s door were turned away too.

While the world kept asking questions and Indians remained puzzled about the nature of the promised deal, the Noida-based startup, Ringing Bells, which had promised a Rs 251 (less than $4) ‘Make in India’ smartphone, delivery charges extra, on Friday claimed to have received nearly 5 crore registrations in just 2 days of opening up for online pre-orders.

Brendon McCullum struck the fastest ever test century in a blistering counter-attack that dragged his side back into the second test against Australia, with New Zealand 273 for six at tea on the first day on Saturday.

The New Zealand captain, playing his 101st and final test, reached his 12th test century from just 54 balls as he and Corey Anderson bludgeoned the visitors' attack in a scintillating 75 minutes after lunch at Hagley Oval.

New emission norms for thermal power plants are likely to increase NTPC's cost of producing power by 10 per cent. This extra cost would be passed on to consumers, executives with the country's largest power producer said.

After commitments made by the government during the Paris Climate Summit in December, the environment ministry notified new standards for thermal power stations relating to consumption of water, particulate matter, SO2, NOx and mercury.

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) will soon allow interoperability between cable service and DTH (direct-to-home) service providers, allowing users to change their cable operators, similar to the telecom segment.

As of now, cable operators and DTH service providers offer their services bundled with a set-top box which comes at a cost of Rs 1,500-2,000. However, if a consumer is not satisfied with his service provider, he is forced to buy a new set-top box from the other operator because of technical issues. Even the amount paid for the box is non-refundable.

After Mumbai and Bengaluru, Hyderabad will be the third city in India to get a World Trade Centre. A report in Deccan Chronicle states that this will become another hub for international businesses in the city. There are World Trade Centres (WTC) in a 100 countries at this point.

According to the report, the Telangana government is planning to set up the WTC in a public-private-partnership mode on outskirts of the city. The state government will get a licence from the World Trade Centres Association (WTCA) for the same. The headquarters of the WTCA are in New York. It was established in 1970 as a non-profit organisation to promote international trade.

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