CATEGORIES

2w sales skid 9%, lowest in over a year

DESPATCHES OF MOTORCYCLES and scooters of five of India's top six manufacturers to dealers fell 9% year-on-year during December as destocking efforts and lower retail demand took a toll on despatches.

Looking forward with hope to achieve growth at scale: Mahindra CEO

MAHINDRA GROUP is looking forward to the new year with hope and confidence, driven by its aspiration to achieve growth at scale, according to its CEO & managing director Anish Shah.

upGrad bets on ‘top-up/tank-up’ strategy

EDTECH FIRM UPGRAD will focus more on high margin businesses like upskilling courses rather than formal education formats in order to drive profitability as it prepares for an initial public offering seven to nine quarters down the line, majority shareholder Ronnie Screwvala told FE.

DoT Likely to Shelve BSNL's VRS Proposal Amid Union Protests

After uproar from the employees' unions, the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has likely put the second voluntary retirement scheme (VRS) proposal for BSNL on hold, officials said.

ONDC Onboards Over 700k Sellers, Service Providers

More than 700,000 sellers and service providers have been included on the Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) so far, the government said on Thursday.

SC hauls up Punjab over protest fast of farmer leader

The Supreme Court on Thursday slammed the Punjab government over the hunger strike by farmer leader Jagjit Singh Dallewal, saying the state's attitude appeared to be against reconciliation and its officials were spreading the wrong impression that the court was trying to persuade Dallewal to break his fast.

Centre to get first chance to restore J&K statehood: CM

IN HIS FIRST media interaction here Thursday, two-and-a-half months after taking over as Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister, Omar Abdullah stressed on restoration of statehood to J&K but added that his government was willing to wait for the Centre to do so rather than taking recourse to courts.

Banks Urge RBI To Ease Cash Crunch With Forex Swaps

Some big lenders in India have asked the central bank to inject liquidity using foreign-exchange swaps as short-term currency financing costs surged to a four-year high, according to people familiar with the matter.

Low rainfall in Jan-March may hit rabi crop yield

IF THE MET department's forecast of a below-normal rainfall and above-normal temperature during January-March, especially in the northern states, turns true, yields of several winter crops including wheat, mustard, chana and horticultural crops could be hit, experts said.

Iran minister in Delhi for talks to boost ties, trade

DAYS BEFORE DONALD Trump returns to the Oval Office, Majid Takht-Ravanchi, Iran's deputy foreign minister, has reached New Delhi for talks Friday with external affairs minister S Jaishankar and foreign secretary Vikram Misri.

Employment up 36% between FY15, FY24

EMPLOYMENT IN THE country has increased by 36% to 643.3 million in 2023-24 from 471.5 million in 2014-15, \"reflecting an improvement in jobs scenario\" under the NDA regime, labour minister Mansukh Mandaviya said on Thursday, citing official data.

Goyal to meet EV industry representatives

REPRESENTATIVES OF ELECTRIC vehicle manufacturers will meet commerce and industry minister Piyush Goyal on Friday to discuss issues related to the expansion of manufacturing and the adoption and building of support infrastructure, including charging and battery swapping facilities.

NSO to compile district-level estimates

STARTING THIS MONTH, the statistics ministry will conduct new survey rounds which will contain district-level estimates, in addition to the existing national- and state-level data, according to an official release.

India to add 30 GW RE capacity in FY25-26

INDIA IS LIKELY to add 30 gigawatt (GW) of renewable energy capacity over FY25-26, backed by continued policy support, availability of liquidity and established growth plans of some large corporate players, reduced equipment prices, and waiver of interstate transmission system charges, analysts say.

Panel to suggest road map for Producer Price Index

To revise WPI base year as well; Niti Aayog member Ramesh Chand will lead committee

Budget wish list: Lower tax on FD interest & fund for NBFCs

Ahead of the Budget for 2025-26, representatives of the financial sector and capital markets on Thursday sought a lowering of tax on interest income from fixed deposits to align with capital gains tax on equities, a dedicated refinancing window for non-banking financial companies (NBFCs), and incentives for long-term savings.

Sebi Debars Ketan Parekh Again

KETAN PAREKH, who was debarred by the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) two decades ago after his conviction in the infamous stock market scam in 2000, is back in the markets regulator's bad books.

Norms for release of capex to states eased

THE CENTRE HAS relaxed a clutch of norms regarding the release of interest-free capex loans to the state governments to ensure that the entire sum of ₹1.5 lakh crore earmarked for 2024-25 is fully utilised during the year, and help arrest a decline in public capex.

Dec Manufacturing PMI Slips to 56.4, Weakest in 2024

EXPANSION IN MANUFACTURING activity in the country slowed in December, amid softer demand conditions and price pressures.

Bulls have a blast

Investor wealth rises by ₹6 lakh crore

Agritech to create 80K jobs in 5 yrs: Teamlease

THE AGRI-TECH SECTOR is expected to create 60,000-80,000 new employment opportunities over the next five years, a senior executive of TeamLease Services said.

Bhopal gas tragedy: 40 yrs later, toxic waste leaves Union Carbide factory

FORTY YEARS AFTER the Bhopal gas tragedy, the shifting of some 377 tonne of hazardous waste began from the defunct Union Carbide factory on Wednesday night for its disposal, an official said.

Regulation, deals, crypto: Fintech themes for 2025

THE CLOUDS THAT hung over the financial-technology industry in 2024 appear to be clearing as interest-rate cuts, recoveries in fintech stocks and promises of a looser regulatory environment in the second Trump administration paint a more promising outlook for startups.

From evolution to digital revolution

THE EYE GAVE Charles Darwin \"a cold shudder\". Writing in The Origin of Species, he struggled to explain how natural selection could create something so intricate. Over millions of years, our eyes evolved exquisitely. They adapted to function in natural light, their view constantly varying as our ancestors moved, gathering food and hunting, their blink rates perfectly adjusted to protect and nourish the eye. Today, the eyes are under unprecedented assault, their evolution utterly outpaced by technological change.

Boost quality control, fix fair pricing: Shah to NCOL

COOPERATION MINISTER AMIT Shah on Wednesday directed National Cooperative Organic Ltd (NCOL) to strengthen quality control and establish fair pricing for its \"Bharat Organics\"brand as the government seeks to expand organic farming nationwide.

Large quantum computers a reality in the near future

THE WILLOW COMPUTING chip marks a significant milestone in quantum computing, advancing scalability, stability, and error correction - key to achieving fault-tolerant quantum systems.

An inspiration for India's Quantum Mission

THE SUCCESS OF Google is a shot in the arm for India's Quantum Computing Mission as this demonstrates the feasibility and great potential of quantum computing and will act a motivation to strengthen the ecosystem. India should speed up our own development, collaborate and get knowledge sharing from Google, focus on applications and algorithms development.

AI, Convergence, and Beyond

Firms poised to scale up AI deployments into full production

Cutting through the hype on AI, RTO, and DEI

FROM A QUICK glance at 2024's top business headlines, you'd think all companies were pushing return-to-office (RTO) policies, embracing artificial intelligence (AI), and banishing diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programmes. But as we head into 2025, let's remember that headlines don't always reflect reality.

Virtual companions, real consequences

It is imperative to set up legal frameworks and ethical guidelines that safeguard users, especially those most vulnerable, from unintended consequences of AI