Heavy rainfall was experienced in several parts of Odisha on Wednesday. Locals were seen catching fish at the inundated National Highway 57 in the Boudh area after ponds of the fisheries department got flooded following heavy and continuous rainfall.

IMD scientist HR Biswas said, "Rainfall to continue during the next 24 hours. Heavy to very heavy rainfall is likely over West Odisha districts. Coastal districts will see moderate rainfall. Heavy to very rainfall is likely to occur in several districts including Sundargarh, Sambalpur."

Ambuja Cements on Thursday announced that it would acquire Sanghi Industries Ltd (SIL) at an enterprise valuation of Rs 5,000 crore. The Adani Group company will acquire a 56.74 per cent stake in SIL from its existing promoter group, Ravi Sanghi & family. The acquisition will be fully funded through internal accruals.

According to a stock exchange filing, the acquisition will be completed in the next three to four months.

India has logged 60 new coronavirus infections while the active cases have slightly increased to 1,482 from 1,474 a day before, according to the Union Health Ministry data updated on Wednesday.

The death toll has been recorded at 5,31,917, the data updated at 8 am stated.

Income-tax (I-T) filings for the assessment year (AY) 2023-24 have hit a record high, exceeding 67.7 million. This figure represents a 16.1 per cent increase compared to the total tax returns filed during the previous assessment year, according to an announcement by the revenue department on Tuesday.

For AY23, the department received 58.3 million returns. It emphasised that the 5.37 million income-tax returns (ITRs) received from new taxpayers signify a “widening of the tax base.”

In a major crackdown on the narcotics trade, the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) busted 2 international drug cartels operating through the darknet and arrested 22 individuals with a huge cache of 29,103 blots of deadly LSD in the last 3 months, stated a Ministry of Information & Broadcasting release on Tuesday.

Union Home Minister congratulated NCB for this major success against drugs.

Shares of GE Power India hit a 52-week high of Rs 181 as they surged 13 per cent on the BSE in Wednesday’s intra-day trade, in an otherwise a weak market, after the company received a Letter of Intent (LoI) from Gujarat State Electricity Corporation for contract worth of Rs 444 crore.

In an exchange filing, GE Power India said the company has received contract for design, engineering, manufacture, supply, shop testing, packing and forwarding, installation, commissioning and PG testing of flue gas desulphurisation (FGD) system on engineering procurement & construction (EPC) basis.

Manipal Group Chairman Ranjan Pai is in early discussions to invest in Byju’s-owned Aakash Educational Services Limited (AESL).

According to sources in the know, Byju’s founder and Chief Executive Officer Byju Raveendran, who owns a 30 per cent stake in Aakash, is expected to partially offload his holding to Pai for $80-90 million (about Rs 650-740 crore).

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Tuesday raided the residence of Hero MotoCorp Chairman and Managing Director Pawan Munjal after taking cognisance of a Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) case.

According to a CNBC report, a case has been registered against Munjal under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002.

The Indian government has hiked windfall tax on petroleum crude to 4,250 Indian rupees ($51.68) per tonne from 1,600 Indian rupees with effect from Aug. 1.
A windfall tax on diesel has been increased to 1 rupee per litre from nil earlier, according to a government notification on Monday.

In a major relief for many citizens, the state-backed oil companies have slashed the prices of commercial LPG gas cylinders, with the rate of the 19 kg gas cylinder dropped by Rs 99.75. However, the prices of domestic LPG gas cylinders remain the same.

The gas cylinder price drop has been announced by oil and gas companies on Tuesday morning, with the revised prices of the commercial LPG gas cylinders being implemented from today, August 1.

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