STARING at the turf below, Misbah-ul-Haq dragged his feet on his way to a shattered Pakistan dressing room. The score was 220/9 and the fans in green seemed resigned to their fate. The regular followers of India vs Pakistan at the World Cup had seen this before. The only thing that had changed was the venue and score. It was 231 all out (Mohali, 2011) and 152 all out (Johannesburg, 2007). India stretched their World Cup-winning streak over Pakistan by registering a 76-run win on Sunday and once again, it was the Misbah frame on which the credits were rolling.

Indian IT major Infosys on Monday announced its first major acquisition under new CEO Vishal Sikka by making public a $200 million cash deal to buy the Israeli firm Panaya, Inc., a provider of automation technology for large scale enterprise software management. The deal will be closed by the end of the current financial year.

Infosys’ who have been very conservative in its acquisition strategies over the years said the Panaya deal reflects “execution of its Renew and New strategy to enhance the competitiveness and productivity of current service lines by leveraging automation, innovation and artificial intelligence’’.

In the December quarter, the story for HDFC Bank Ltd was not any different from those of other lenders when it came to loan growth. Despite rosy projections of a 7.5% economic growth in that quarter, credit demand lagged. HDFC Bank’s advances grew 17% from a year ago, the lowest in four quarters.

While the bank’s focus on the retail customer has led this segment to account for 51% of its loan book, growth was faster in the corporate segment at 20%. But that is not exactly a reason to cheer because it was mostly working capital demand and loans to small and medium enterprises—a segment susceptible to bad loans. Even in the retail segment, unsecured loans such as personal loans and credit cards are growing at a robust pace, confirming that this is an environment with fewer growth opportunities for lenders.

NEW DELHI: It took a crippling cabin crew shortage for Air India to realize the extent to which it has been underutilizing its precious human resource.

Aviation safety rules stipulate that an airhostess pilot must stop flying as soon as she reports to the airline that she is pregnant. While all private airlines give women flight crew the option of shifting to ground duties, AI has all along been sending them on long maternity leave as soon as they report pregnancy.

Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) chief Arvind Kejriwal will be sworn-in as the Chief Minister of Delhi here on Saturday.

He will be administered the oath of office and secrecy by Delhi's Lieutenant Governor Najeeb Jung at the Ramlila ground at 12 noon.

HDFC Bank on Saturday reported a 20% growth in net profit to Rs 2,794.5 crore for the quarter ended December 2014. The jump in profit is largely on account of higher Other Income and Net Interest Income (NII).

NII, the difference between interest income and interest expenditure, grew 23% to Rs 5,699.9 crore, compared with Rs 4,634.8 crore in the third quarter of the previous financial year.

Asset management firms ICICI Securities Primary Dealership (ICICI Sec PD), Reliance Capital AMC (RCap AMC) and HSBC AMC have emerged as top bidders for managing the huge corpus of retirement fund body Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation(EPFO).

EPFO’s apex decision-making body, the Central Board of Trustees (CBT), will take a final call on appointing fund managers for three-year terms, beginning April 1, in a meeting on Tuesday.

Reliance Communications has reported an 86 per cent year-on-year increase in its consolidated net profit to Rs 201 crore for the quarter ended December, on the back of high data usage and lower finance costs.

It had posted a net profit of Rs 108 crore in the same quarter previous year. The consolidated revenue increased by 5.4 per cent to Rs 5,435 crore in the quarter from Rs 5,157 crore in the same quarter previous year.

Helped by a gain from offloading control of a subsidiary company, utility and tractor vehicle market leader Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M) on Friday posted a one per cent growth in its net profit for the quarter ended December.

The stand-alone net profit for the quarter stood at Rs 942 crore against Rs 934 crore posted in the same quarter last year. However, nearly Rs 300 crore, which was part of the exceptional item list, arose from the shares in Tech Mahindra that M&M received as a result of the merger of Mahindra Engineering Services, a subsidiary of M&M, with the information technology (IT) company.

The government on Friday suffered a setback in the coal block auction process as the high court here provided relief to several companies, which were disqualified from participating in the bidding process on one or the other ground.

The hearing on the issue was conducted in phases till late this evening before two separate benches, which heard the petitions filed by Jindal Steel and Power Ltd (JSPL) and Jindal Power Ltd (JPL), Sesa Sterlite, Sarda Energy and Minerals Ltd, Usha-Martin, Monet Ispat, Utkal Coal Ltd and Jayaswal Neco Industries Ltd.

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.