In a major victory for Tamil Nadu, the Supreme Court on Wednesday refused to stay its decision allocating 50 per cent super-specialty seats in government medical colleges to NEET-qualified in-service candidates.

A bench comprising Justices L Nageswara rao and B R Gavai permitted the state government to continue providing 50 per cent quota for in-service candidates in super speciality courses in its colleges.

Shares of ITC hit an over three-month high of Rs 242, up 2 per cent on the BSE in Wednesday's intra-day trade, on expectation of healthy earning going ahead. It traded at its highest level since November 18, 2021.

In the past two weeks, the stock has outperformed the market by surging 12 per cent, as compared to a 5 per cent decline in the S&P BSE Sensex. The stock was close to its 52-week high level of Rs 265.30 touched on October 18, 2021.

Shares of cement companies rallied up to 20 per cent, bouncing back from previous week's lows, amid declining crude oil prices.

Frontline cement stocks like UltraTech Cement, Ambuja Cements, ACC, Dalmia Bharat, India Cements, Ramco Cement and Shree Cement rose in the range of 2 per cent to 3 per cent in intra-day deals today. Sagar Cements, meanwhile, zoomed 20 per cent on the BSE in the intra-day trade while JK Cements, Orient Cement and Sanghi Industries added 4 to 6 per cent. In comparison, the S&P BSE Sensex was up 1.5 per cent at 56,607 points at 12:12 PM.

Amazon Academy, the edtech unit of the e-commerce firm, has launched JEE/NEET ‘Ultimate Pack for 2022-23’ in both Hinglish and English languages for students moving from Class 10 to Class 11 and Class 11 to Class 12 respectively. The year-long course is designed to help students secure high scores in competitive exams by providing a holistic preparation that includes live classes, high-quality content and data analytics backed teaching. The course also guides students via a research-based revision program at Amazon Academy by highly rated expert faculty who have coached top JEE/NEET rankers in the past.

IndiGo started flights between India and Thailand from Tuesday onwards after a span of two years, a statement said.

Thailand is opening its borders nearly two years after it restricted entry for tourists in March 2020, the airline's statement noted.

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said in Rajya Sabha (RS) on Tuesday that Rs 96,756 crore had been disbursed to states as goods and service tax (GST) compensation, but Rs 53,611 crore was still pending.

“The Centre is committed to release full GST compensation to states/Union Territories, according to the GST (Compensation to States) Act, 2017, for the transition period by extending the levy of compensation cess beyond five years to meet the GST revenue shortfall, as well as servicing the loan borrowed through a special window scheme,” Sitharaman said in reply.

Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday said that the GST Council should not be politicised as it is a body in which every finance minister from every state sits in and decides on how the disbursements happen.

While intervening during the question hour in the Rajya Sabha on the issue of GST compensation which is yet to be paid to the states, the Finance Minister said: I appeal through you, that we don't need to politicise this. Its an insult to the GST council.

One97 Communications, the parent company of digital payments major Paytm, dropped out of the 100-most valued companies list on the BSE as the stock price of the company tanked a whopping 20 per cent in the last two trading sessions.

At 10:48 am; with market capitalisation (market cap) of Rs 40,863 crore, Paytm stood at 112th position in overall ranking of the BSE listed companies. The company lost market cap of Rs 60,537 crore since it's listing day. The company had made its market debut on November 18, 2021. It was at the 51th position in overall ranking with market cap of Rs 1.01 trillion.

Shares of Ruchi Soya Industries surged 18 per cent to Rs 1,140 on the BSE in Tuesday’s intra-day trade, zooming as much as 42 per cent in the past two trading sessions after the company announced plans to launch Rs 4,300-crore follow-on public offering (FPO) next week.

At 02:34 pm; the stock of the company, which is owned by Baba Ramdev-led Patanjali Ayurved, traded 13 per cent higher at Rs 1,090 on the BSE. In comparison, the S&P BSE Sensex was down 1.6 per cent at 55,596. The trading volume at the counter jumped over 10-fold with a combined around 1 million equity shares changing hands on the NSE and BSE.

HDFC Bank announced on Tuesday that its total business in Karnataka has crossed Rs two trillion, making it the largest private sector bank in the state in terms of overall business volume.

The bank's total advances in the state stood at Rs 73,655.39 crore on September 30, 2021, which included loans to retail, corporate, MSME and Microfinance customers, the bank said in a press release. The lender enjoys a market share of nine per cent in total advances in the state.

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