New Delhi: The government on Thursday announced tax breaks on income from offshore bonds in a bid to encourage foreign investors to buy rupee-denominated bonds.

The finance ministry in a statement said that a lower withholding tax of 5% will be applicable on interest income accruing to non-resident investors of these bonds, similar to the treatment given to offshore dollar denominated bonds.

Amazon India and its largest local rival, Flipkart, which was modelled on the American online retailer, are changing their strategies in diverging ways, as they seek to dominate India’s fast-growing e-commerce market.

Amazon India and Flipkart, the country’s biggest e-commerce firm, are supposed to operate as marketplace platforms that connect small merchants with buyers. They aren’t allowed to sell directly to shoppers.

Indian stocks climbed for the first time this week, with the benchmark gauge set for its biggest monthly advance since May, as investors awaited quarterly results of some of the nation’s biggest companies including ICICI Bank Ltd and ITC Ltd.

Dr Reddy’s Laboratories Ltd, the third-biggest drugmaker by market value, rallied to a record after its profit beat estimates. NTPC Ltd, the top power producer, surged the most since May last year. ITC, the largest cigarette company, fell for a fifth day, set for the longest losing streak since August.

Bharat Petroleum Corp Ltd is planning to launch an initial public offer (IPO) of its Bina refinery unit next year, chairman of the state-owned firm S Varadarajan said on Thursday.

India's second-biggest state refiner, BPCL will hold 50% in Bharat Oman Refineries Ltd (BORL), which had built the unit, while Oman Oil Company will hold the remaining 26%. The IPO "is planned for next year," Varadarajan told reporters.

NTPC, the largest state-owned power generator, posted an increase of 40% in its profit during quarter ending September 2015.

The unaudited profit after tax (PAT) for the Q2 of FY 2015-16 was Rs 2,898.28 crore as compared to the Rs 2,071.63 crore during same period last fiscal.

Munbai: Four months after the capital markets regulator made it easier for start-ups to raise money and trade on Indian stock exchanges, no entrepreneur has moved to seek a local listing, preferring instead to raise funds from venture capital (VC) and private equity (PE) firms or individual angel investors.

Tough promoter holding norms set by the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi), uncertainties about the valuations start-ups can attract and doubts over how liquid stocks would be after a listing are deterring start-ups from raising money through initial public offerings (IPOs), market participants say.

New Delhi: India plans to shift to Euro-VI emission compliant petrol and diesel by 2020 to cut carbon pollution, oil minister Dharmendra Pradhan said on Thursday.

“We already have BS-III, equivalent to Euro-III specifications, across the country and BS-IV, in major cities which will shortly be extended to the entire country. A revised Auto Fuel Policy is in the offing which will lead to introduction of BS-VI fuels by 2020,” he said.

The benchmark BSE Sensex fell over 93 points to slip below the 27,000-mark in early trade on Thursday as participants cut down bets in view of the October series expiry in the derivatives segment amid weak Asian cues.

The 30-share barometer fell 93.42 points, or 0.34 per cent, to 26,946.34 after opening in positive zone. The gauge had lost 431.03 points in the previous three sessions.

Just Dial share price slid as much as 8 per cent on Thursday after the company reported lower-than-expected second quarter earnings on Wednesday post market hours. For the quarter ended September 30, 2015, the company posted net profit of Rs 46.30 crore, up 47.03 per cent, against Rs 31.49 crore in the corresponding quarter a year ago. Net sales of the company jumped 16.19 per cent year-on-year to Rs 171.27 crore.

The Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) and mobile phone operators on Thursday decided to meet every two weeks, to sort out issues and concerns surrounding call drops.

In a meeting held on Thursday, the two sides had decided that the joint team of officials from TRAI and mobile phone companies would assess the test results on networks, planned in Delhi, Mumbai, and five other cities by December. The scope of the network tests is also likely to be expanded.

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