Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will chair the 44th meeting of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council today which is expected to take a decision on relief in respect of COVID-19 related individual items based on the report of Group of Ministers.

The meeting will take place at 11 am and Minister of State for Finance Anurag Thakur along with finance ministers and senior officials of states and union territories (UT) will be in attendance.

Shares of Coal India hit a 52-week high of Rs 164.45 as they rallied 5 per cent on the BSE in intra-day trade on Friday amid expectations of improvement in earnings going forward. The stock of the state-owned company surpassed its previous high of Rs 162.95, touched on February 26, 2021.

In the past two weeks, the stock has outperformed the market by gaining 12 per cent as compared to a 2.2 per cent rise in the S&P BSE Sensex. A sharp rally in the stock price has helped Coal India regain the market capitalisation of Rs 1 trillion.

Steel giant SAIL on Friday posted a 31 per cent jump in its consolidated net profit at Rs 3,469.88 crore for the quarter ended March 31, 2021, mainly on account of higher income.

The company had clocked Rs 2,647.52 crore net profit during the January-March period of fiscal year 2019-20, Steel Authority of India Ltd (SAIL) said in a regulatory filing.

IT major Wipro on Friday said it has appointed Anup Purohit as its chief information officer (CIO).

Anup brings with him over 25 years of experience across banking and financial services, centered around innovation in digital banking, financial management, business solutions and service delivery, portfolio and program management, risk and controls and information security, Wipro said in a regulatory filing.

The daily COVID-19 count in India remained below the one-lakh mark for the fourth consecutive day with the country reporting 91,702 fresh cases, while the daily positivity rate dropped to 4.49 per cent, according to the Union Health Ministry data updated on Friday.

With the fresh cases, the total tally of cases has climbed to 2,92,74,823.

The Yogi Adityanath government in Uttar Pradesh has transferred 10 senior IPS officers, who were attached to the police headquarters in Lucknow.

According to an official release here, DG headquarters Vishwajeet Mahapatra has been made DG civil defence, ADG headquarter Satish Chandra Mathur has been made ADG rules and manuals and ADG headquarters S Ravinder has been made ADG security.

The overall global Covid-19 caseload has topped 174.7 million, while the deaths have surged to more than 3.76 million, according to the Johns Hopkins University.

In its latest update on Friday morning, the University's Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) revealed that the current global caseload and death toll stood at 174,759,974 and 3,769,088, respectively.

Amid speculations about the resignation of Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa, Congress leader and Leader of Opposition in Karnataka Legislative Assembly Siddaramaiah on Thursday said that the BJP has taken no action against those party leaders who spoke against Yediyurappa.

Siddaramaiah demanded a leadership change, terming the chief minister and the BJP high command in the state 'weak'.

Amid speculations of expansion of the Uttar Pradesh cabinet ahead of Assembly elections next year, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, who is on a two-day visit to Delhi, will meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP National President JP Nadda here on Friday.

The Chief Minister is scheduled to meet PM Modi at his residence at 7 Lok Kalyan Marg at 10:45 am. Later, he will meet Nadda at his residence at 12 noon.

The annual Rath Yatra of Lord Shree Jagannath in Puri will be held this year and servitors who have received vaccine shots and test negative for Covid-19 will be allowed to attend rituals.

This will be the second year in a row when the devotees will not be allowed to attend the celebrations due to second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Inviting Real Estate Agents, Job Placements Agents, Educational Institutes, Software Service Providers, Real Estate Builders, Marriage Bureaus, Travel Agents, Restaurant Owners, Health & Fitness Centers and other Local Businesses to Post a FREE Classified Advertisement on Cootera.com Classifieds Website.