Bengaluru: Ten months. Five candidates. Three countries. That is the journey Wipro Ltd chief executive officer T.K. Kurien and human resources head Saurabh Govil undertook before the company named Abid Ali Neemuchwala as chief operating officer (COO) on 16 March.

Kurien and Govil, who flew to London, Seattle, Dallas and New York between April and November on this mission, had at least a dozen meetings with external candidates.

New Delhi, March 19: The CBI today told a Delhi court that Reliance Industries vice-president (finance) K.V. Mohanan and the managing partner of Mumbai-based law firm Chitale and Associates, Rajendra Chitale, were "suspects" in the corporate espionage case the agency is probing.

Agency officials began questioning Mohanan and Chitale at the CBI headquarters this afternoon. Mohanan had been questioned for nine hours yesterday too.

The government is likely to table in the Lok Sabha tomorrow a Bill to make non-disclosure of overseas income and assets a predicate offence that will attract punitive action including up to 10 years jail time.

The Bill will provide a small window to overseas asset holders to declare their wealth, pay taxes and penalties to escape punitive action.

Infosys, India’s second largest IT services company, had decided not to go ahead with a separate leader to manage its venture capital investments. Instead, the Bengaluru-based company has decided to manage the $500 million Innovation Fund with the help of Ritika Suri, who presently heads its Merger & Acquisitions (M&A) initiatives.

“She will be responsible for managing the Innovation Fund as well as our investments in the start-up space, apart from being responsible for M&As. May be at some point of time, we may look at having a person under her to manage the fund. But the person will only report to her,” said a senior official of the company.

The government’s assured revenue from telecom spectrum auction crossed Rs 1,08,000 crore at the end of the 13th day of bidding on Wednesday, marginally higher from the previous day. The auction will continue on Thursday, according to a statement by the Department of Telecommunications (DoT).

The auction, the biggest so far, began on March 4. The government is auctioning 380.75 MHz of spectrum in the 800, 900 and 1,800-MHz bands, and 5 MHz in the 2,100-MHz band, across 17 of the country’s 22 circles. The department of telecommunications had initially estimated it would get Rs 80,000-100,000 crore.

Bengaluru: Wipro Ltd said that its 10-month long search for a chief operating officer (COO) should not be seen as succession planning for chief executive officer (CEO) T.K. Kurien, who will stay at least until February 2016, when his five-year contract comes up for renewal.

Significantly, the Bengaluru-based company said the next CEO at Wipro will be “someone from within the company” and that all senior leaders have an equal chance for the top job, seeking to end any talk of Abid Ali Neemuchwala being the CEO-in-waiting.

The benchmark BSE Sensex rose by almost 350 points in early trade today on emergence of buying by funds and retail investors amid a firming trend in global markets after the US Federal Reserve took a dovish stance on monetary policy.

Besides, strengthening of the rupee against the US dollar supported the recovery.

To tap capital markets to raise funds, a number of e-commerce companies including start-ups are lobbying hard with Sebi to seek relaxation in IPO norms, but regulator is firm on measures to safeguard investors.

Sebi is of the view that the investor interest is paramount in its regulatory regime and the norms, including for detailed disclosures and strong financial positions, are necessary to ensure safety of investors' money.

The Tata Motors stock fell two per cent in trade on Wednesday, on worry about a fall in car sales of its Europe-based subsidiary, Jaguar Land Rover (JLR). Sales for JLR are down six per cent year-on-year, largely due to phasing out of the Range Rover Freelander (to be replaced by the Discovery Sport) and no exports of the Evoque to China as the company starts to manufacture the model locally.

However, excluding these two, sales were up six per cent for the month. Adjustments in the production line for changing models have influenced JLR sales in the past two months. While the share of China in the overall JLR volume pie was down to 19 per cent in February from 27 per cent year-to-date, on local manufacture and an unfavourable base, analysts expect it to gradually increase again. IDBI Capital analysts say the benefit of local production in that country will help the company be competitive in case of a slowdown.

Mahindra World City, an integrated city set up jointly by the Mahindra Group and the Tamil Nadu Industrial Development Corporation (Tidco) near Chennai, expects to attract Rs 500-600 crore investment in the next two years.

Exports from the City is expected to reach around Rs 10,000 crore by 2017-18.

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