Facebook Inc said it would launch a satellite in partnership with France’s Eutelsat Communications to bring Internet access to large parts of sub-Saharan Africa.

The satellite, part of Facebook’s Internet.org platform to expand internet access mainly via mobile phones, is under construction and will be launched in 2016, the companies said on Monday.

Tata Motors is negotiating with the governments of Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra for grant of stage carriage permits for its passenger carrier Magic, a 4 to 7- seater vehicle. If granted, the permit can be used for local transportation purposes.

With several other states, where the vehicle has been given the carriage permit on specific routes, the company is in talks with the authorities for expanding it to other routes.

We believe accelerated 3G/4G investments by Idea Cellular would hit operating margins in FY16/17 as the company strives to improve coverage/ quality of data services in key circles.

Also, there is an upside risk to capex intensity in the following years. We have cut our FY16-17E Ebitda by 1-7% as we lower margin assumption for FY17 by ~150 bps to 35.5%.

Shares of ITC are trading higher by 1% at Rs 333 on the BSE after the company decided to foray into the dairy segment with the launch of its new product Aashirvaad ghee this Diwali.

The company has plans to replicate the same success it achieved in the unorganised and commoditised atta segment with the Aashirvaad brand. Aashirvaad is a brand of staple food and kitchen ingredients owned by ITC and the range of products include Atta, Salt, Spices and Instant mixes.

Housing Finance and Development Corp (HDFC), India’s largest mortgage financier, has reduced home loan rates by 25 basis points to 9.65 per cent. The lender will offer an additional discount of five bps to women.

The new rates, applicable to both existing and new borrowers, are effective Tuesday.

Ashok Leyland continues to gain market share from rivals, with overall sales (commercial vehicles) in September growing at 61% year-on-year as against expectations of a 38% growth.

In the medium and heavy commercial vehicles (M&HCV) segment, its sales were up 83% year-on-year while Tata Motors reported a 53% jump and Volvo Eicher increased its volumes by 27%. Ashok Leyland’s market share in M&HCV has increased from 28.5% in FY15 to over 31% now, its highest level in over a decade.

Mumbai, Oct. 4 (PTI): The State Bank of India (SBI) may have cut its base lending rate by 40 basis points to 9.3 per cent following the Reserve Bank's latest policy rate cut, but home loan customers of the top lender will have to pay up to 0.7 per cent above the base rate.

Accordingly, the actual reduction in home loan rates will be a maximum of only 20 basis points, while a higher margin above the base rate will mean that customers will have to pay the same rate of interest on home loans above Rs 1 crore.

The prospect of conquering the dark and vast expanse of space has fascinated the human mind for a good part of the last century. Perhaps that is why ‘The Martian,’ a film adaptation of Andy Weir’s book about one man’s struggle to survive on Mars, rocketed to the number one spot at the box office this weekend.

In the movie, Matt Damon’s character realizes he doesn’t have enough food to survive the next possible human visitation four years in the future and is forced to recognize he might starve to death.

Mumbai: Lanco Infratech Ltd’s lenders had had enough. The infrastructure company had made plenty of promises during its debt-restructuring negotiations with banks in 2013 as it sought to recast about Rs.7,000 crore in loans. A year and a half later, only a few of those promises had been honoured.

Asset sales were far too few and the slower-than-expected economic recovery meant that the stress on Lanco’s balance sheet showed no signs of easing.

Stock market benchmark BSE Sensex surged by over 371 points and the NSE Nifty regained the 8,000 mark in early trade today, extending rally for the fourth day on positive cues from other Asian markets.

Inflows from foreign investors and across-the-board buying by the investors also helped the market sentiments.

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