Zee Entertainment Enterprises's board has approved a fundraise of up to $239.6 million, the Indian broadcaster said on Thursday.

The company had two major deals - a $10 billion merger with Sony India and a $1.4 billion cricket broadcasting deal with Walt Disney - fail this year, and was forced to cut costs and reduce losses in its business to a meet key profit target.

As many as 251 (46 per cent) of the 543 newly elected Lok Sabha members have criminal cases registered against them and 27 of them have been convicted, according to an analysis by poll rights body Association of Democratic Reforms (ADR).

This is the highest number of candidates facing criminal charges to be elected to the Lower House.

Lok Sabha election 2024: Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and Andhra Pradesh CM designate Chandrababu Naidu are playing the role of kingmakers in the Lok Sabha elections as the Bharatiya Janata Party failed to secure the majority of 272 seats by itself this time.

Overall, the Bharatiya Janata Party emerged as the largest winner at 240 seats but needed the help of Nitish and Naidu to form the National Democratic Alliance government.

The National Stock Exchange of India (NSE) achieved a remarkable milestone on Wednesday, setting a new world record for the highest number of transactions in a single trading day.

NSE CEO Ashish Chauhan announced on microblogging site X, formerly known as Twitter, that the exchange processed an unprecedented 19.71 billion orders and 280.55 million trades within the trading hours of 9:15 am to 3:30 pm.

Preparations for government formation began on Wednesday with the ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA) unanimously electing Narendra Modi as its leader while the opposition INDIA bloc said it will take appropriate steps at the appropriate time to "realise the people's desire not to be ruled by the BJP government".

The ruling and opposition alliances held parallel meetings at the Prime Minister's residence and Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge's residence respectively in the evening, a day after the election results gave a clear majority to the BJP-led NDA.

Sri Lankan President Ranil Wickremesinghe and Nepalese Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal 'Prachanda' on Tuesday congratulated Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the victory of the BJP-led NDA coalition in the general elections and expressed their desire to work closely with him.

"I extend my warmest felicitations to the BJP-led NDA on its victory demonstrating the confidence of the Indian people in the progress and prosperity under the leadership of PM Narendra Modi," the Sri Lankan president wrote on X.

India is unpredictable. This is an incontrovertible fact that Indians themselves seem to have forgotten over the past decade. Ever since Prime Minister Narendra Modi stormed into office with an unexpected and unprecedented outright legislative majority in 2014, many have assumed the country’s politics had changed forever. The age of coalitions was over; India seemed to be heading inexorably toward one-party dominance.

President Joe Biden won Democratic primaries Tuesday in New Jersey and Washington, DC, among some of the last contests on the 2024 primary calendar.

Biden's wins came as a handful of states were holding presidential primary contests for both parties, marking the first time Donald Trump's name appeared on the ballot since his historic conviction on felony crimes.

2024 Lok Sabha election results: As it becomes clearer that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) will not be able to cross the majority mark of 272 seats alone, anticipation around the coalitions has increased.

As per the latest data from the Election Commission, BJP is leading on 244 out of 543 seats. It is followed by Congress on 98 seats and Samajwadi Party on 34 seats.

Senior leaders of the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) are likely to meet on Wednesday to take stock of the Lok Sabha poll results and deliberate on the details of government formation.

JD(U) leader and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and Telugu Desam Party president N Chandrababu Naidu, who is set to become the next Andhra Pradesh chief minister, will attend the meeting where top leaders of the BJP and its other allies are also expected to be present, sources said.

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