Ahead of the launch of its mobile phone services, Reliance Industries has increased its stake in Reliance Jio to almost 99 per cent. According to documents accessed by Business Standard, RIL increased its direct stake in Jio to 98.9 per cent as on March this year by pumping more capital into the company. The stake held by the Nahatas (Infotel Broadband promoter Mahendra Nahata and his son Anant) has fallen to just one per cent as they did not make any investments after 2010 in the rollout of services.

State-run Oil and Natural Gas Corporation's (ONGC's) foray into coal bed methane (CBM) exploration could get a bit longer. Brisbane-listed Dart Energy has surrendered its stake in the former's CBM bocks.

In June 2013, ONGC had offered a 10 to 25 per cent stake in four of its CBM blocks to Dart. Owing to the tough conditions of doing business in India, Dart said it had decided to exit the country, surrendering its interests in the blocks, said an official from the company.

Two weeks before the deadline for implementation of new corporate-governance norms, corporate India could expect some relief from the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi). The announcements were expected this week, people familiar with the developments said.

Sebi is likely to extend the compliance deadline for certain select provisions under the amended listing agreement by six months. The new deadline for these is likely to be April 1.

NEW DELHI: Voters queued up on Saturday to exercise their franchise for the bypolls in three Lok Sabha and 33 assembly constituencies spread across 10 states.

The three Lok Sabha bypolls are in Vadodara (Gujarat), Mainpuri (Uttar Pradesh) and Medak (Telangana) while 11 assembly constituencies are in UP, nine in Gujarat, four in Rajasthan, two in West Bengal, five in Northeastern states and one each in Chhattisgarh and Andhra Pradesh.

Mumbai: When N. Chandrasekaran was named chief executive officer (CEO) and managing director (MD) of Tata Consultancy Services Ltd (TCS) five years ago, analysts and insiders started talking of the firm’s acronym being short for “Take Chandra Seriously”.

Chandrasekaran proved them so right that no one was surprised when India’s largest software services exporter last week appointed the marathon runner CEO and MD for a second five-year term effective 6 October. Given his track record, shareholder approval to the appointment seems to be a mere formality.

Unhappy with the lingering uncertainty over a proposal to allow developers to fully exit completed projects, the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has asked that it be implemented in earnest so that a clutch of deals that private equity funds, corporates and foreign pension funds have either already clinched or are negotiating with incumbent developers could materialise soon.

The leader in defence electronics in India, Bharat Electronics (BHEL) would be a key beneficiary of the rising defence expenditure in the country.

The Indian Air Force would be finalising large ticket acquisitions of $20-22 billion, and as the proportion of Electronics is higher in Air Force orders, these deals would be important from BHEL’s perspective.

ISLAMABAD: At least three people were killed and 15 injured Saturday when a bomb went off in Pakistan's Quetta city.

According to officials, the bomb exploded near a paramilitary Frontier Corps (FC) vehicle which was on routine patrol, Xinhua reported.

The mood at the corporate headquarters of HMT Watches was subdued on Friday morning as news of its reported closure spread. There are 1,105 employees at the company’s three factories and corporate head office.

The Union ministry of heavy industries and public enterprises is said to have decided to wind down the company, once describing itself as “keeping time to the nation”, 53 years after it started ticking. Manufacture will soon be stopped at Bangalore and Tumkur in Karnataka and Ranibagh in Uttarakhand.

The registered address of RNT Associates is 12, Bakhtavar, Mumbai. If that doesn't ring a bell, this surely will: The firm was registered by Ratan Tata in 2009, three years before he retired as chairman of Tata Sons.

The only other director in the firm is Tata's long-time lieutenant R K Krishna Kumar, who holds a token stake, according to registration documents sourced from the Ministry of Corporate Affairs.

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