CHENNAI: The 59-hour countdown for the launch of six Singapore satellites by Indian Space Research Organisation on board its Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle from Sriharikota began today.

The launch is scheduled at 6.00 PM on December 16, at Satish Dhawan Space Centre in the spaceport of Sriharikota.

Shares of automobile companies have extended losses in Monday morning trades and are trading lower after the National Green Tribunal (NGT) on Friday has ordered immediate ban on registration of diesel-run cars in the national capital. The order further states that there won’t be any renewal of registration of vehicles that are older than 10 years in Delhi.

Among individual stocks, Tata Motors has skid over 3% to Rs 366, M&M has slipped nearly 2% to Rs 1,238, Ashok Leyland has dropped 0.7% to Rs 85, and Eicher Motors has lost 2.4% to Rs 15,187 on the Bombay Stock Exchange.

Shares of TCS have slipped by over 1% to Rs 2,360 on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) after the company announced that the recent flood in Chennai led to major disruptions in its ability to function.

The normal business functioning of company's facilities had to be halted in the city all week since December 1 due to flooding. This is expected to have a material impact on the company's revenues in the seasonally weak Q3 December 2015, it added.

To stay ahead in the digital banking space, State Bank of India (SBI) is buttressing its human resources (HR) systems and practices. The bank, India’s largest lender, will take steps such as audit of its HR systems and practices. For this, it will rope in a consultant.

SBI will also conduct, for the first time, an employee engagement survey to get feedback on the effectiveness of HR practices and policies that are in vogue. Ashwini Mehra, deputy managing director and corporate development officer at SBI, said audits would be conducted every five or six years. The last such exercise was done in 2009 by HR consulting firm Hewitt.

Amidst the golbal terrorism chaos, Institute for Economics & Peace has released it's Global Terrorism Index. Iraq, Afghanistan, Nigeria, Pakistan, and Syria are the worst hit countries by terrorism. In the year 2014, these countries suffered the largest number terrorist attacks.

According to the index, in the year 2014, the number of lives lost to terrorism increased by 80% and these five countries were victims of total 78% of these attacks.

A Rs 98,000-crore project to lay India's first bullet train network between commercial nerve centre of Mumbai and Ahmedabad was today finalised at the annual summit talks between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Japanese counterpart Shinzo Abe.

"No less historic is our decision to introduce High Speed Rail on the Mumbai-Ahmedabad sector through Japan's Shinkansen, known for its speed, reliability and safety," Modi said at a joint media event with Abe.

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa today granted a solatium of Rs four lakh each to the kin of 23 people killed in rain-related incidents in the State.

All the victims were killed in the first week of this month in Kanchipuram district.

Gold prices jumped by Rs 290 to regain the Rs 26,000-level at the bullion market today on the back of a firm trend overseas and pick-up in buying by jewellers to meet wedding season demand.

However, silver remained weak and lost Rs 200 at Rs 33,850 per kg on reduced offtake by industrial units and coin makers.

Software major Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) emerged as the biggest wealth creator in the past five years, while MMTC and Reliance Industries topped the list of companies where investors lost the most, says a study.

According to wealth creation study conducted by financial services company Motilal Oswal, TCS created wealth worth Rs 3,458 billion for the period 2010-15, followed by ITC (Rs 1,565 billion) and HDFC Bank (Rs 1,540 billion).

There is a curious mismatch between the number of shareholders reported by The Associated Journals in its filings to the ministry of corporate affairs (MCA) and the number of shareholders as claimed by senior Congress leaders in recent interviews.

Business Standard has reviewed annual returns of The Associated Journals for six years starting September 2009. In each of those years the number of shareholders was in four digits. Annual returns report the number of shareholders as on a specific date, usually the date of the company’s annual general meeting.

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