New Delhi: Maruti Suzuki India Ltd, which has a stranglehold on the small-car market in India, is trying to shed the budget car maker tag by selling its more expensive models through a separate network as buyers, even first-timers, opt increasingly for larger cars.

As part of efforts to boost its market share in the premium-car category, Maruti Suzuki in a meeting on Saturday decided to sell its cars through two separate marketing networks and also recast its top management, according to three people familiar with the development. All of them requested anonymity. A spokesperson for Maruti declined to comment on the story.

Bangalore: The AIADMK head and former Tamil Nadu chief minister J. Jayalalithaa was cleared of corruption charges by the Karnataka high court on Monday, in a verdict that sparked wild celebrations by supporters and paved the way for the return of one of the country’s most powerful politicians.

Jayalalithaa was forced to stand down as chief minister of Tamil Nadu after being found guilty last September of amassing illegal wealth while in office and the former film star was sentenced to four years in jail in a case that ran for nearly two decades.

State-run explorer ONGC is targeting an incremental growth of around 3% in crude oil production between FY16 and FY19 from the western offshore basin spanning from Saurashtra in Gujarat to the Kerala-Konkan coast. The planned acceleration in production entails investments of Rs 25,000 crore.

“We have a three-phase strategy. First is to achieve field growth, a low-hanging fruit. About 16,000 sq km in the Mumbai offshore basin is currently under a seven-year petroleum mining lease (PML), starting 2012. Secondly, there will be a focus on making new discoveries in the current areas till 2019. And thirdly, less explored areas will be given more attention,” one of the directors on ONGC board told FE, requesting anonymity.

Bringing the retail sector under its scanner, which includes e-retailers like Amazon, Flipkart, Snapdeal, Jabong and Myntra the Competition Commission of India (CCI) is now analysing whether price discount arrangements between manufacturers and distributors are anti-competitive in nature.

The move assumes significance against the backdrop of the regulator recently rejecting allegations of unfair business practices against leading online retailers.

Adopting a segregated brand and product approach to address both personal and commercial usage segments, Tata Motors has decided that only old car brands, starting with Indica and Indigo, will ply in taxi segment as it looks for a stronger presence in personal usage market.

The company, better known for its cars in the taxi segment, is trying to overcome a “unique social perspective (in India) that a brand which does well in the commercial market, nobody wants to buy for personal usage segment”.

Strong beat in Q4: Q4FY15 profit after tax of Rs 9.1 bn (+38% year-on-year) was better than expected with a beat on both lending and capital market businesses. For the lending business, not only is the revenue momentum picking up but also some of the fundamental metrics like CASA (current account savings account) and fee intensity performance is better than expected, and with buoyant capital markets we are finally seeing capital market profitability improving. We have nothing much to complain about; our only constraint remains rich valuations (3.4x FY17 book). Thus we maintain our Neutral rating.

BENGALURU: Wipro has revamped its internal training framework for employees and launched at least three technical training programmes over the past year to reskill its staff in newer areas of technology, especially digital, amid evolving customer needs in a rapidly changing technology landscape.

This is part of an organisational overhaul being undertaken at India's third largest software exporter by CEO TK Kurien with a focus on heavy automation of commoditised service lines and creating a leaner and multi-skilled workforce.

The S&P BSE benchmark Sensex today extended its last Friday's gains on positive global cues triggered by strong US jobs data amid China's decision to cut rates and was quoting higher by another 281 points at 27,386.53 in late-morning deals.

Positive overseas developments boosted the market sentiment. Strong US jobs data pointed to economic growth picking up amid China's move to lower interest rates by 25 bps over the preceding weekend for the third time in six months.

Shares of Bank of Baroda has moved higher by 12% to Rs 163 on the NSE after the state-owned bank said that the bank's assets quality improved during the quarter ended March 2015 on a sequential basis.

The percentage of gross and net non-performing assets ratios stood at 3.72% and 1.89% during the March 2015 quarter from 3.85% and 2.11% respectively in the December 2014 quarter, Bank of Baroda said in a statement.

Morgage lender Housing Development Finance Corporation (HDFC) has emerged as the only Indian company among the world's 10 biggest consumer financial services firms, after giants like American Express, Visa and Mastercard.

HDFC is ranked seventh on the list, compiled by business magazine Forbes, where American Express is placed on the top followed by Capital One Financial, Visa, Discover Financial Services and Orix in the top-five. Mastercard is ranked sixth.

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