India’s Simple Energy plans to invest as much as 25 billion rupees ($330 million) in new capacity to make electric scooters, with support from the government in the southern state of Tamil Nadu.

The Bangalore-based company is constructing an initial facility an hour outside the city with the goal of starting operations in 2022 and the capacity to produce a million electric two-wheelers a year. It aims to open a second, larger plant in Dharmapuri in 2023, with capacity to make 12.5 million of such scooters annually.

Shares of Whirlpool of India hit a 52-week low of Rs 1,820, down 10 per cent on the BSE in Wednesday's intra-day amid growth concerns.

The stock of the consumer electronics company has seen huge trading activities with trading volumes on the counter jumping multiple-fold today. At 10:27 am, it was trading 6 per cent lower at Rs 1,901, as compared to a 1.3 per cent rise in the S&P BSE Sensex. A combined 1.65 million equity shares, representing 1.27 per cent of total equity of the company, had changed hands on the counter on the NSE and BSE till the time of writing of this report.

Shares of interest rate sensitive sectors such as financials including banks, housing finance companies (HFCs), real estate and automobiles were trading higher by up to 4 per cent on the National Stock Exchange (NSE) after the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) kept interest rates unchanged for the ninth consecutive time on Wednesday.

The policy repo rate remains unchanged at 4 per cent and the stance remains accommodative. The reverse repo rate also remains unchanged at 3.35 per cent.

Shares of FSN E-Commerce Ventures (Nykaa) continued to reel under the selling pressure, falling another 5 per cent in to Rs 2,040.60 on the BSE in Wednesday’s early morning trades amid fears of selling by anchor investors, owing to the end of the lock-in period. The stock of fashion and cosmetics online retailer was trading lower for fifth straight day, falling 18 per cent in one week. In comparison, the S&P BSE Sensex was up 2 per cent during the same period.

A sharp decline in stock price of the company, has resulted in the market capitalisation of Nykaa fall below Rs 1-trillion mark.

The government has so far disbursed Rs 2,071 crore for 4,003 projects under the Agriculture Infrastructure Fund, Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar said on Tuesday.

Tomar, in a written reply to the Lok Sabha, said a total of 8,488 projects have been sanctioned under the scheme so far with a loan amount of Rs 6,098 crore.

The world’s biggest vaccine maker Serum Institute of India (SII) on Tuesday said it will reduce the production of the Oxford-Astra­Ze­neca vaccine — marketed as Covishield in India — by at least 50 per cent from next week as government orders have dried up.

Adar Poonawalla, chief executive officer of SII, told CNBC-TV18: “The company is in a dilemma as supply is more than demand for Covishield and it has to dial down the production. We will complete our existing orders to the government by next week. The company has written to the government for guidance on volumes needed.”

Convalescent plasma shows no improvement in survival and other important measures and is not recommended for patients with Covid-19, according to a study released on Tuesday by the World Health Organization (WHO).

Covid-19 convalescent plasma, also known as survivor's plasma, is transfusion of blood plasma from patients who have recovered from Covid-19. Last year, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued an emergency use authorisation to allow use of convalescent plasma in hospitalised patients with Covid-19.

India logged 6,822 new coronavirus infections, the lowest in 558 days, taking the country's total tally of COVID-19 cases to

3,46,48,383, while the active cases declined to 95,014, the lowest in 554 days, according to the Union Health Ministry data updated on Tuesday.

The death toll climbed to 4,73,757 with 220 fresh fatalities, according to the data updated at 8 am.

Biotechnology major Biocon on Tuesday said it has inked a pact with Saudi Arabia-based drug firm Tabuk Pharmaceutical Manufacturing Company to commercialise select speciality products in the Middle East region.

Tabuk Pharmaceutical Manufacturing Company is a fully-owned subsidiary of Astra Industrial Group, a leading pharmaceutical company in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region.

Shares of Talbros Automotive Components rallied 8 per cent to hit a new high of Rs 442 on Tuesday, extending Monday's 7 per cent surge on the National Stock Exchange (NSE).

In the past six trading days, the stock of the auto ancillary company has zoomed 49 per cent after ace investor Vijay Kedia bought nearly 2 per cent stake in the company via open market.

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