Electric two-wheeler maker Simple Energy on Wednesday said it will invest up to ~2,500 crore over the next five years to set up an electric vehicle manufacturing facility in Tamil Nadu. The proposed facility, spread across 600 acres, will be the company's second such production unit and is expected to be functional by 2023, the Bengaluru-based company said in a release.

Tamil Nadu gave us the confidence in creating the EV ecosystem, which can be sustainable in achieving our long-term goals.

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh is likely to brief the Lok Sabha about the chopper crash in Tamil Nadu in which Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) Bipin Rawat, his wife and 11 other defence personnel died. Singh is also likely to brief the Rajya Sabha.

Sources said that the Defence Minister will brief the Lok Sabha at 11:15 a.m. and Rajya Sabha later on. The CDS was going to the Defence Services Staff College in Wellington to deliver a lecture when the crash happened.

The country’s most senior serving soldier, Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) General Bipin Rawat, was killed in a helicopter crash in the Nilgiris district of Tamil Nadu on Wednesday, when he was flying to give a lecture at the Defence Services Staff College (DSSC) in Wellington.

With him in an Indian Air Force (IAF) Mi-17V-5 helicopter were his wife, Madhulika Rawat, and 11 other armed forces personnel. The only survivor was the pilot, Group Captain Varun Singh, who is battling for his life in Military Hospital Wellington.

With 8,439 more people testing positive for COVID-19 in a day, India's infection tally rose to 3,46,56,822 on Wednesday, while the count of active cases declined to 93,733, the lowest in 555 days, according to the Union Health Ministry data.

The death toll due to the disease has climbed to 4,73,952, with 195 daily fatalities being recorded, according to the data updated at 8 am.

India's largest private health insurer Star Health has cut the size of its initial public offering (IPO) to 64 billion rupees ($848.02 million) from 72.49 billion rupees earlier after a subdued response to the IPO last week, its prospectus showed.

Star Health's IPO failed to get fully subscribed last week, signalling weak investor demand for India's third-biggest listing this year.

Shares of Devyani International hit a new high of Rs 181.80, having rallied 13 per cent on the BSE in Wednesday’s intra-day trade on the back of huge volumes. The stock of the quick service restaurant (QSR) firm surpassed its previous high of Rs 171 touched on November 18, 2021.

Brokerage firm Motilal Oswal Institutional Equities has initiated coverage on Devyani with a Buy rating and target price of Rs 190, driven by KFC’s strong brand equity and operating metrics, increasing focus on delivery by Pizza Hut driving its turnaround, and robust growth in both these brands led by rapid network expansion.

Spice Jet has announced that it would file an appeal in the Madras High Court against an order of the single bench of the high court directing the airline to wind up its operation.

Justice Subramaniam of the Madras High Court had on Monday ordered the airline company to wind up its operation over its failure to make payments to a Swiss Maintenance, Repair, and Overhaul (MRO) service provider.

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.

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