Mumbai: Insurance companies are getting ready to bid aggressively for Air India’s $9 billion cover, coming up for renewal on 1 October.

State-run Air India, which floated a global tender for the policy to cover its 126 aircraft, expects to buy the policy at a reasonable discount, given the rise in the number of underwriters and its safety record, said two Air India executives.

Nasscom on Thursday signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Symantec to develop certified cyber security professionals. With this initiative, Nasscom aims to take the number of cyber security professionals in the country from 63,200 to a million. Sector Skill Council (SSC), Nasscom and Data Security Council of India (DSCI), along with Symantec, will focus on training and creating new job opportunities in the field of cyber security.

“The nature of threats are evolving every day. We need manpower to tackle the present day aspects of cyber security which includes conflict management, secure coding, legal issues among others,” said Gulshan Rai, National Cyber Security Coordinator.

Micromax, the only Indian company among top 10 handset makers globally, has announced the launch of its new flagship, the Canvas Sliver 5, which it claims is the world’s thinnest and lightest phone. While there do exist thinner phones, Micromax claims no other model is 5.1-mm thin end to end, devoid of camera bumps. And the phone’s weight, at 95 grams, also makes it the lightest.

While Micromax CEO Vineet Taneja said that every component of the phone was being streamlined to keep it thin and save battery life, the slightly expensive price tag of Rs 17,999 might work against it.

Extending gains for the sixth day in a row, the benchmark BSE Sensex rose almost 150 points and the NSE Nifty rallied past 8,200 mark in early trade on Friday.

At 9.28 am, Sensex was up 170.56 points at 27,286.39. Similarly, Nifty was up 40.35 points at 8,214.95 during the same time.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has said that the next 2-3 years will be “very critical” as the government plans to implement a series of reforms that will help India reach its “destination targets” of growth higher than the current 7-7.5 per cent rates.

“(In) India today neither the government, the people or the industry are very excited about a 7-7.5 per cent growth rate because everybody realises, including me and the Prime Minister that probably our potential is a little higher than that,” Jaitley said here on Thursday.

Did Mukesh Ambani say something unusual at RIL's 41st annual general meeting last week that has resulted in the sharp move of its stock price? The stock has rallied nearly 12% in the last one week and is trading at Rs 993 levels currently.

Analysts do feel so. Most of them have either upgraded their recommendation or have changed their price target.

Money held by Indians in Swiss banks fell about 10 per cent last year to 1.8 billion Swiss francs (about Rs 12,615 crore), amid an enhanced clampdown against the famed secrecy wall of Switzerland's banking system by Indian and other govts.

The funds held by Indians with banks in Switzerland fell 215 million Swiss Franc to 1,815 million Swiss Franc (about $1.98 billion dollar), from 2,030 million Swiss Franc, according to the latest data released on Thursday by the country's central banking authority Swiss National Bank (SNB).

Four senior Microsoft executives, including Stephen Elop and Mark Penn, will leave the technology company in the biggest organisational shake-up yet under Satya Nadella, its chief executive.

In an email sent to Microsoft employees on Wednesday morning, Nadella said that three of the departures were related to his decision to organise the company's engineering efforts into fewer groups. The three executives leaving as a result are Elop, former chief executive of Nokia, who has been leading Microsoft's devices group; Eric Rudder, leader of its advanced technology and education efforts; and Kirill Tatarinov, head of its business solutions group.

The Enforcement Directorate, the agency investigating online betting in the Indian Premier League, has issued warrants for the arrest of four alleged betting operators, Thane-based Anil Jaisinghani, Jaipur-based brothers Vineet and Rahul Gangwal, and Sukhmunder Singh Sodhi.

At least one of them is alleged to be involved in fixing IPL matches.

The Indian subsidiary of Swedish transportation major Volvo Trucks is set to shift into top gear as revival in mining and infrastructure sectors has spurred the demand for its premium trucks (400 HP and above).

Though the company took 17 years to sell 10,000 trucks, with 5,000 units in the first decade (1998-2009) and another 5,000 over the last six years, the subsidiary is gearing up to meet the growing demand in the core sectors. It is now confident of selling the next 5,000 trucks in three to four years.

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