The capital markets regulator, Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi), has simplified the rules for opening of trading and demat accounts by resident individual investors, to boost retail participation in the securities market.

It has introduced the concept of a ‘Saral (Simple) Account’, with much more relaxed Know Your Customer requirements as compared to a normal demat account. Such accounts are primarily aimed at investors who only participate in the cash market, without availing other facilities like internet, mobile banking or margin and derivative trading.

Axis Bank has priced a $250 million bond issue via a tap of its existing 3.2 per cent senior unsecured notes due 2020. The notes, issued in Reg-S format will be fungible with the existing 2020 maturity paper.

The notes are issued by Axis Bank’s DIFC branch, Dubai and are rated Baa2 by Moody's, BBB- by S&P and Fitch. The deal was launched at initial price guidance of US treasuries plus 150 basis points and attracted robust demand from investors with the books covered within an hour of announcement of transaction to the market.

In January, state-owned Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd (BHEL) said it was looking for partners to manufacture mounted gun systems for the armed forces. The Indian Army is expected to hand out a contract for such guns in the near future, and BHEL needs a technology partner to participate in the bid. The order is expected to be worth Rs 50,000 crore. A month earlier, it had formed a consortium with two other state-owned companies, Mishra Dhatu Nigam and Hindustan Shipyard, to build submarines indigenously. The consortium plans to jointly bid for the proposed P-75 (I) project of the Indian Navy, under which six submarnies will be built at an Indian shipyard at a total cost of Rs 51,000 crore.

State Bank of India (SBI) today hinted that its biggest share sale issue, which may fetch a whopping Rs 10,000-15,000 crore, may hit the markets "anytime".

The nation's largest lender said it has all the approvals in place for the issue, but added timing for its launch has not been decided yet.

A day before Volvo, the Swedish truck maker, was to partly sell its stake in Eicher Motors, investors dumped the latter's shares, forcing the stock down a little over three per cent on the BSE.

After clarification that Volvo would remain committed to its India operations, which it runs jointly with Eicher, the Delhi-based company's shares closed with a gain of one per cent on Wednesday.

After running five start-up accelerator batches in India, Microsoft Ventures launched two new programmes on Wednesday — Accelerator Plus and Scale Up — which would focus on late-stage start-ups. The start-up engagement arm of the US technology major has so far conducted only 'acceleration programmes' that included companies from idea to mature stages.

Accelerator Plus will include start-ups, which have raised seed-level funding and has at least 50 clients (for business-to-business (B2B) segment) and 20,000 customers (business-to-customer (B2C) space).

Infosys co-founder N R Narayana Murthy and his wife sold a part of their stake to set up a venture fund. With Rs 600 crore, Catamaran Ventures was established in 2009-10.

Murthy was following Azim Premji, founder of Wipro, who had set up a private equity arm, PremjiInvest, to manage his wealth. PremjiInvest, with Rs 10,000 crore, up from Rs 1,500 crore in 2007, making it the largest family office in Asia, made its first investment in 2007, buying a three per cent stake in National Stock Exchange (NSE) for $100 million.

Nearly 240 people on board a Turkish Airlines jet had a lucky escape when the plane missed the runway on landing in dense fog at the Kathmandu airport today and skidded onto nearby grassland. The Airbus A330 from Istanbul skidded off after over- shooting it at the Tribhuvan International Airport as it missed the central line of the runway while landing.

There were 227 passengers and 11 crew members in the aircraft and all were safely evacuated from the emergency door without any injuries, airport authorities said. The flight from Istanbul had both Nepalese and foreigners on board.

India raised a number of issues with Pakistan on Tuesday, including cross-border terrorism, 2008 Mumbai terror attacks, and the ongoing ceasefire violations across the Line of Control (LoC), during the visit of Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar to Islamabad.

The foreign secretary, who was in Pakistan as part of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ‘SAARC Yatra’ initiative, also met Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif; Sartaj Aziz, Sharif’s advisor on foreign affairs and national security; and Tariq Fatemi, special assistant to Sharif. Jaishankar met Sharif later in the day and handed over a letter written by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to him.

Alibaba Group Holding Ltd Executive Chairman Jack Ma, whose company was told to leave Taiwan within six months over alleged investment violations, said the e-commerce giant followed local laws when it entered the market.

Taiwan is very important for Alibaba, Ma told reporters Tuesday after delivering a speech to university students in Taipei. As a global company, no matter where we go in the world, we need to comply with the local laws.

Inviting Real Estate Agents, Job Placements Agents, Educational Institutes, Software Service Providers, Real Estate Builders, Marriage Bureaus, Travel Agents, Restaurant Owners, Health & Fitness Centers and other Local Businesses to Post a FREE Classified Advertisement on Cootera.com Classifieds Website.