Even though some cities or states in India may be beginning to see plateauing of COVID-19 cases, the risk persists and focus must be on reducing transmission and implementing situation-specific measures, senior WHO official Poonam Khetrapal Singh said.

The Health Ministry said on Thursday that early indications of Covid cases plateauing have been reported in certain geographies in the country but the trend needs to be observed.

The Congress on Saturday attacked the Centre over a New York Times report which claimed that the Indian government bought the Pegasus spy tool in 2017 as part of a deal with Israel, alleging that the government indulged in illegal snooping using the spyware which amounts to "treason".

According to the report in The New York Times, the Israeli spyware Pegasus and a missile system were the "centerpieces" of a roughly USD 2-billion deal of sophisticated weapons and intelligence gear between India and Israel in 2017.

Maharashtra on Friday recorded 24,948 new coronavirus cases including 110 Omicron infections and 103 pandemic-related deaths, the health department said.

New cases declined by 477 compared to the day before. On Thursday, the state had recorded 25,425 cases besides 42 fatalities.

The caseload on Friday rose to 76,55,554 and death toll reached 1,42,461.

The country's largest lender State Bank of India (SBI) has put in place new rules wherein a woman candidate with more than three months pregnancy will be considered "temporarily unfit" and can join the bank within four months after delivery.

The move has elicited criticism from some quarters, including from the All India State Bank Of India Employees' Association.

Amid an ongoing resurgence across the world, the global coronavirus caseload has topped 369.4 million, while the deaths have surged to more than 5.64 million and vaccinations to over 9.92 billion, according to Johns Hopkins University.

In its latest update on Saturday morning, the University's Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) revealed that the current global caseload and the death toll stood at 369,440,775 and 5,648,611, respectively, while the total number of vaccine doses administered has increased to 9,926,334,578.

The initial public offering of edible oil major Adani Wilmar Limited received 1.13 times subscription on the second day of offering on Friday. The IPO received bids for 138,577,270 shares against 122,546,150 shares on offer, according to an update on BSE.

The category for Retail Individual Investors (RIIs) was subscribed 1.85 times, while non-institutional investors received 88 per cent subscription and Qualified Institutional Buyers (QIBs) 39 per cent.

Mumbai-based Oberoi Realty Ltd on Friday reported a 63 per cent increase in its consolidated net profit at Rs 467.53 crore for the quarter ended December.

Its net profit stood at Rs 286.65 crore in the year-ago period.

Total income rose to Rs 846.19 crore during October-December period of this fiscal year from Rs 837.57 crore in the corresponding period of the previous year, according to a regulatory filing.

IT firm Happiest Minds Technologies Ltd on Friday reported a 16.1 per cent jump in consolidated net profit to Rs 48.92 crore for the December 2021 quarter.

The company had posted a net profit of Rs 42.15 crore in the year-ago period.

Its revenue during October-December 2021 grew 47.2 per cent to Rs 283.94 crore as compared with Rs 192.84 crore in the year-ago period, a regulatory filing said.

A joint venture of billionaire Gautam Adani-run group's gas arm and Total of France on Friday walked away with the most 14 licenses to retail CNG to automobiles and piped cooking gas to households in the latest city gas bidding round, according to oil regulator PNGRB.

Adani Total Gas Ltd won city gas rights in 14 out of the 52 geographical areas (GAs) for which Petroleum and Natural Gas Regulatory Board (PNGRB) declared results on Friday.

Zomato Ltd, restaurant aggregator and food delivery company, has decided to foray into the financial services business and has decided to create a non-banking finance company (NBFC) as a wholly-owned subsidiary for the purpose.

The proposed paid-up capital of NBFC will be Rs 3 crore, while the authorised capital is pegged at Rs 10 crore. The name of the company is being finalised subject to approval by the Ministry of Corporate Affairs, Zomato said in a filing with the BSE.

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