Defence PSU Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL) and Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) have concluded a Memorandum of Agreement (MoA) to form a joint venture aiming at a single point of contact for extending long-term product support services for India's defence forces.

The announcement was made by Union Minister of State for Defence Ajay Bhat, at Aero India 2023, the ongoing biennial air show and aviation exhibition, at Yelahanka Air Force Station here, a BEL statement said.

Air India will require more than 6,500 pilots to operate 470 aircraft that are to be supplied by Airbus and Boeing in the coming years, according to industry sources.

Seeking to expand fleet as well as operations, the airline has placed orders for acquiring a total of 840 aircraft that includes an option to buy 370 planes. This is one of the largest aircraft order by any airline.

Tata Steel successfully completed the first multi-modal shipment of 960 tonnes of TMT bars from West Bengal's Haldia Port to Tripura's Agartala, the company said on Thursday.

The entire transportation from flag-off to receiving material at the distributor's warehouse in Agartala was completed in 17 days, it said.

Adani Green Energy has a refinancing plan which the Indian company will disclose after the fiscal year ends, an executive of the embattled Adani group told bondholders on a call on Thursday, two sources with direct knowledge of the matter said.

Adani Group had hired banks to arrange calls with bond investors after it was caught up in a short-selling storm in recent weeks.

The Centre on Thursday cut the windfall profit tax on domestically produced crude oil from Rs 5,050 per tonne to Rs 4,350 per tonne. The additional excise duty on ATF was also cut to Rs 1.5 per litre from Rs 6 per litre earlier.

Further, the government also slashed tax on export of diesel to Rs 2.5 per litre from Rs 7.5 per litre. Petrol continues to have zero excise duty. The new rates will come into effect on February 16.

Voting for the 60-member Assembly in Tripura began at 7 am on Thursday amid tight security, said Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Gitte Kirankumar Dinakarrao.

Altogether 28.13 voters are scheduled to exercise their franchise during the day in 3,337 polling stations of the northeastern state to determine the fate of 259 candidates, he said.

An earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 6 rocked the Philippines on Thursday morning, the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology said.

The institute said the quake, which occurred at 2:10 a.m. local time, hit at a depth of 10 km, about 11 km southwest of Batuan town in Masbate province on the main island of Luzon, Xinhua news agency reported.

World Health Organization (WHO) chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on Wednesday (local time) said that the organization will continue pushing until it finds an answer to how the Covid-19 pandemic started, following a report suggesting it had abandoned the search.

"We need to continue to push until we get the answer," Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told reporters, referring to the search for the origins of the virus that first began spreading in China in late 2019.

Global rating agency Standard and Poor's (S&P) has placed Adani Transmission Ltd's (ATL) environmental, social, and governance (ESG) evaluation under review. This follows recent allegations of significant governance lapses at the Adani group of companies.

On January 24, 2023, a short-seller report (Hindenburg report) claimed there were significant governance issues at the Adani group. Many allegations relate to disclosures and actions at the shareholder level. Since then, equity and bond prices have plummeted for the group's entities, including ATL.

The consolidated earnings of Bharat Forge in October-December quarter (Q3FY23) missed estimates, largely due to higher-than-expected interest burden although operational numbers (including standalone numbers) were close to consensus.

However, the management guidance was positive and appears to be based on logic.

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