State-run petroleum explorer Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) on Thursday reported a 19.5 per cent decline in standalone net profit for the quarter ended March 2015 on higher operating costs, lower prices and write-offs of dry wells that did not result in any discovery.

The company posted a net profit of Rs 3,935 crore for the fourth quarter of 2014-15 as compared to Rs 4,889 crore in the corresponding quarter previous fiscal. The profit was way below Bloomberg consensus estimate of Rs 5,620 crore.

Utility vehicles maker, Mahindra and Mahindra Limited (M&M), is planning to launch nine vehicles, including refreshes and all-new models, in both the personal and commercial segments during this financial year, according to Ashish Malik, vice-president (marketing, automotive division).

“The XUV500, launched in September 2011, has taken the Indian automobile industry by storm. More than 100,000 units were sold within three years of its launch, and we are currently selling 3,000 units of the XUV month-on-month,” he told mediapesons at the launch of the 2015 XUV500 facelift in Hyderabad on Wednesday.

IT giant Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) has been rated as the best company in India on various financial and operational parameters by Dun & Bradstreet.

The list of top 500 firms places Reliance Industries and ITC at the second and the third spots respectively.

India's top energy explorer Oil and Natural Gas Corp reported a 20% drop in quarterly net profit on Thursday.

ONGC said net profit was Rs 3,935 crores in its fiscal fourth quarter to March 31, down from Rs 4,889 crores a year earlier.

In a move to encourage online purchasing and selling, Google has confirmed it would provide an option to buy products directly from its search page, according to media reports.

The Wall Street Journal quoted Chief Executive Officer Omid Kordestani as saying: “There’s going to be a buy button. It’s imminent.” The CEO said this at a technology conference on Wednesday. The button is reported to appear on Google’s paid product listing ads.

Less than one-tenth of analysts have registered with Sebi so far even as the deadline for registrations ends on 31 May, 2015.

Sources said that the number of analysts registered with Sebi so far could be lower than 500 as many analysts are still sending in applications for the registration.

In a major setback to the New Delhi Municipal Council’s (NDMC) ambitious free Wi-Fi project, the Delhi High Court on Wednesday restrained the civic body and Indus Towers from entering into an agreement to provide free Wi-Fi and setting up of CCTVs on 18,500 street poles in areas under the civic body’s jurisdiction till final disposal of the case.

A bench of justices Badar Durrez Ahmed and Sanjeev Sachdeva said: “Till we hear the matter finally, further action pursuant to notice inviting tender shall not take place. Respondent 1 (NDMC) and 2 (Indus) not to enter into contract till next date of hearing.” It said that since there were no specifications, there was no standard methodology for comparing the bids of Indus and Reliance Jio Infocomm.

Indian Railways has suffered losses of about Rs 100 crore due to the ongoing Gujjar agitation which has forced cancellation and diversion of as many as 326 Mail and Express trains on Kota-Mathura route so far.

Besides, there have been cancellations of about 1.9 lakh tickets since May 21 on IRCTC website, causing a huge logjam for customers to access the site.

With the lowest deposit growth in half a century as a backdrop, banks want to avoid cutting deposit rates any further and risk losing incremental flows to government-sponsored schemes.

Deposits of the banking system grew 11.42% in 2014-15 to an outstanding R85.86 lakh crore, the lowest growth since 1961. The fact that credit growth was far lower at 8.6% prevented banks from facing liquidity crunch. Bankers said that, going forward, deposit growth will have to pick up once demand for credit starts increasing. In 2014-15, most public sector banks saw their deposits grow around 14% while private banks deposit growth was in the 8-22% band.

NEW DELHI: Cracking the whip on errant employees to improve on time performance (OTP), Air India (AI) has suspended 17 air hostesses for allegedly delaying flights.

The airline has started monitoring when each of its crew reports to airports to operate flights. "These 17 cabin crew members were found to have delayed flights more than three times and they have been suspended," said an AI official.

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