Following a request made by West Godavari district administration, the Rajahmundry Asset of ONGC lifted water from the Godavari River and released it into the canal to save the standing paddy crop suffering due to acute water shortage, a senior official said.

"District Collector K Bhaskar called upon the ONGC for saving the standing paddy crops in the mandals under the ayacut of bank canal of Godavari west delta through by lifting water from river Godavari. We responded swiftly to the request," Debasis Sanyal, Executive Director, ONGC Rajahmundry Assets said in a release here today.

Market regulator Sebi has slapped a total fine of around Rs 40 lakh on six companies for allegedly failing to obtain registration with its online complaint system as well as not resolving pending investor grievances.

Besides, Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) disposed of cases against seven firms in investor complaint cases.

HDFC Bank, India’s second largest private lender, on Tuesday launched Chillr, a mobile application that allows users to transfer money instantly to any contact on their phonebook who have the app.

The app has been developed by Kochi-based technology firm MobME and allows users to send money in three steps. Receivers don’t necessarily need to have accounts with HDFC Bank.

The country’s largest lender, State Bank of India’s e-auction for properties worth Rs 1,200 crore failed to enthused investors. However, the public sector bank intends to conduct a repeat on a similar scale in each quarter, improving the bidding process and information disclosures.

SBI sold 124 of the 450 properties put through auction on an electronic platform, for about Rs 90 crore, said P K Malhotra, its deputy managing director (stressed assets management). He said the response for industrial and commercial properties was not up to expectation.

Mahindra & Mahindra Financial Services — one of the strongest contenders for a banking licence last year, which later on pulled out of the race — is now eyeing a universal bank licence, whose final guidelines are expected to be announced shortly.

“Our level of interest in a universal bank licence continues, except for the fact that we would like to review the regulatory framework under which the licences are being offered, so that it looks commercially viable and it is becomes administratively doable,” said Ramesh Iyer, managing director of the non-banking financial company (NBFC).

Air India is cutting down on flights to loss-making foreign routes and ramping up its domestic network in its summer schedule. Air India deploys its Airbus A320 fleet both on domestic and Gulf routes. The airline operates about 15 flights daily to Gulf sectors using the A320 planes. Over the next few months, Air India will be replacing all its A320-operated Gulf routes with Boeing 787 planes. “Currently, the Airbus A320 fleet utilisation is about 10-11 hours. The A320 aircraft will now be flown only on domestic routes and few South Asian routes. This will enable us to add more flights and routes within India. We plan to increase our domestic capacity in the summer schedule,” the spokesperson added.

Wipro on Monday confirmed the Bengaluru-based information technology (IT) services company was creating a new service line to deal with all new-generation technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning, advanced analytics, and big data. To be known as Wipro Analytics, the new unit will replace the Advanced Technologies & Solutions service line, currently headed by Jeff Heenan-Jalil, senior vice-president.

The line would come into effect from April 1, and would be headed by Heenan-Jalil, the company told the Business Standard.

In the latest sign of the crisis facing real estate companies, Gurgaon-based DLF has launched a mega discount sale of its properties, believed to be its largest so far, in cities across the country to drum up interest.

The company is offering discounts in 16 projects across Delhi, Bengaluru, Chennai, Kochi, Lucknow, Panchkula, Bhubaneswar, Kasauli and New Chandigarh as part of its DLF Spring Festival that will end on March 31.

Air India has defended the sale of five Boeing 777-200LR aircraft to Etihad Airways, saying retaining the fuel-guzzling planes would have aggravated its losses.

The government-owned carrier had acquired eight Boeing 777-200LRs in 2007 for $127 million each (Rs 787 crore as of Monday’s conversion rate). Air India sold five to Etihad for $68 million (Rs 421 crore).

Wipro, India’s third largest information technology services company, on Monday announced the appointment of a chief operating officer and said it was promoting two internal candidates as presidents.

The Bengaluru-based company named Abid Ali Neemuchwala, former business process outsourcing head at Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), as its group president and chief operating officer (COO), a position lying vacant since A L Rao was made an advisor to the company after he retired in September 2009.

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