India's Vedanta ran a "covert" lobbying campaign to weaken key environmental regulations during the COVID-19 pandemic, the Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) said in an article on Thursday.

In January 2021, Vedanta Group Chairman Anil Agarwal told former environment minister Prakash Javadekar the government could add "impetus" to India's economic recovery by allowing mining companies to boost production by up to 50 per cent without having to secure new environmental clearances, the OCCRP said.

Eight absconding terrorists have been arrested here during a special drive by the State Investigation Agency and the Criminal Investigation Department that have started looking for killers and terrorist associates hiding by blending in the society, a police official said on Thursday.

Assisted by Criminal Investigation Department (CID) inputs, State Investigation Agency (SIA) detectives working quietly for months have apprehended the eight terrorists wanted in Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act cases after about three decades, the official said.

Tata Power Renewable Energy Ltd (TPREL) on Thursday said that it has signed a power delivery agreement with Sanyo Special Steel Manufacturing India Pvt Ltd (SSMI) to set up a captive solar plant in Maharashtra's Aachegaon.

"The plant located at Aachegaon, Maharashtra, is to generate 61.875 MUs (million units) of electricity in a year and would supply power to Sanyo Special Steel Manufacturing located within the state," the Tata Power arm said in a statement.

The united Opposition bloc, the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA), will begin its two-day meeting in Mumbai on Thursday. At the meeting, its third since it started its parleys in Patna two months ago, the bloc will pick members of an 11-member central coordination committee and the location for its secretariat in the national capital. It will also announce the names of its chairperson and convenor and release a logo of the grouping.

Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge will be the frontrunner for the chairperson’s position, if Sonia Gandhi, the chairperson of the erstwhile United Progressive Alliance (UPA), declines to take that role, given her poor health.

Indian exporters of basmati rice are negotiating with global buyers to buy it at a rate of $1,200 per tonne now and adjust the price against future orders, The Economic Times (ET) said in a report on Thursday. They are also reportedly overbilling to take the prices above $1,200 per tonne.

This comes just days after the Centre on Sunday imposed a temporary ban on the export of any basmati rice for less than $1,200 per tonne. The move, which will remain effective till October 15, was to restrict "illegal shipment of white non-basmati rise in the garb of premium basmati rice.

The price of 24-carat gold registered a rise of Rs 330 during Thursday's early trade, with ten grams of the precious metal selling at Rs 60,000, according to the GoodReturns website. Silver prices also appreciated by Rs 500 per kg and reached Rs 77,600 per kg.

The price of 22-carat gold rose by Rs 300 per 10 gram, with the yellow metal selling at Rs 55,000 per kg.

Aeroflex Industries, backed by popular investor Ashish Kacholia, made a strong debut on exchanges as shares listed at 83 per cent premium of Rs 197.40 over its issue price of Rs 108 per share on the BSE on Thursday.

On the National Stock Exchange (NSE), the stock listed at Rs 190, a 76 per cent premium to the issue price.

Shares of Atul Auto were locked in the upper circuit of 10 per cent at Rs 570.40 on the BSE on Wednesday at 12:42 PM, amid heavy volumes, with only buyers being seen at the counter.

A combined 1.4 million equity shares, representing 5.5 per cent of total equity of Atul Auto, have so far changed hands on the NSE and BSE. There are pending buy orders for 200,000 shares on both the exchanges. The stock is trading at its highest level since January 2016.

India saw a single-day rise of 61 new coronavirus infections while the active cases were recorded at 1,522, according to Union health ministry data updated on Wednesday.

The death toll was recorded at 5,31,929, the data updated at 8 am showed. The country's Covid case tally is 4.49 crore (4,49,97,117).

Police have arrested a private tutor who allegedly posed as a scientist with the Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) and gave interviews to the media in Surat claiming he designed the lander module for the Chandrayaan-3 moon mission, officials said.

The accused, Mitul Trivedi, who is in his late 30s, impersonated as an Isro scientist to draw more students to his tuition classes in Gujarat's Surat city, they said.

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