NEW DELHI, AUGUST 14 (IANS): With the staggered lifting of the nationwide lockdown, construction activity in the real estate sector has gradually picked up. However, developers and sector experts say the local lockdowns in several states and the lack of construction workers, who mostly returned to their villages during the initial phase of the lockdown, is impacting the pace of construction. Anuj Puri, Chairman of Anarock Property Consultants said that construction activity across t

NEW DELHI, AUGUST 14 (IANS): Air India has informed employees that it is no longer accepting withdrawals of resignations and several cabin crew employees are being relieved as the national carrier has said implicitly "it does not have the financial ability to pay". It is also learnt that a number of cabin crew were terminated on Thursday night by Air India. A letter reviewed by IANS from Air India's personnel department to a pilot makes the company's stand clear

Mumbai, August 14 (IANS): HDFC Bank on Friday launched 'Shaurya KGC Card', for families of armed forces engaged in agricultural activities wherein the armed forces personnel will get finance for agricultural requirements like production of crop, post-harvest maintenance and consumption needs. They can also avail of this funding to purchase farm machinery, irrigation equipment or construct storage structures among others, said a statement by the bank. The product is based

Canberra, August 14 (IANS): The Reserve Bank of Australia's (RBA) Governor Philip Lowe said on Friday that the coronavirus outbreak in Victoria state is likely to delay the country's economic recovery by several months. Prior to the outbreak in Victoria, both the government and RBA were expecting a return to growth for the national economy during the September financial quarter, reports Xinhua news agency. However, Lowe said the outbreak would likely reduce GDP growth by

NEW DELHI, AUGUST 13 (IANS): A substantial rise in food prices lifted India's Juy retail inflation to 6.93 per cent from 6.23 per cent in June, official data showed on Thursday. Accordingly, India's consumer food price index during the month under review rose to 9.62 per cent from 8.72 per cent reported for June 2020. The CFPI's readings measure changes in retail prices of food product. "As the various pandemic related restrictions were gradually lifted and no

MUMBAI, AUGUST 13 (IANS): The Indian stock market ended on a flat-to-negative note on Thursday, weighed down by selling in banking, healthcare and telecom stocks. A largely negative trend in the global markets also reflected on the domestic indices, analysts said. However, healthy buying in metal, capital goods and industrial stocks capped the losses. Rahul Sharma, Research Head at Equity99 Advisors, said: "Private sector banks and pharma stocks continued to reel under se

MUMBAI, AUGUST 13 (IANS): Godrej Industries on Thursday reported a consolidated net profit of Rs 106.17 crore for the April-June quarter. During the corresponding period of the last fiscal, the company had reported a consolidated net profit of Rs 178 crore. In a regulatory filing, the company said that the consolidated results are not comparable on a year-on-year basis in view of acquisitions and changes in the company's or the group's shareholdings during the period in s

NEW DELHI, AUGUST 13 (IANS): Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday launched the 'transparent taxation' platform, which brings into effect faceless assessment of taxpayers, and the Rights' Charter for the taxpayers. With the 'Transparent Taxation Honouring the Honest' that is aimed at carrying forward the journey of direct tax reforms, the taxpayers would not be harassed and treated with suspicion here on. Speaking at the launch, the Prime Minister said that

NEW DELHI, AUGUST 12 (IANS): Prime Minister Narendra Modi will launch a platform to honour honest taxpayers on Thursday. The launch of the platform for 'Transparent Taxation - Honoring the Honest' will further carry forward the journey of direct tax reforms, said an official statement. Union Minister of Finance and Corporate Affairs, Nirmala Sitharaman and Minister of State for Finance and Corporate Affairs, Anurag Singh Thakur will also present at the launch which will b

New Delhi, August 11 (PTI): Hyundai Motor India Ltd (HMIL) on Tuesday said its SUV Creta has crossed five lakh cumulative sales mark in the domestic market. The model also remains the best-selling SUV for three consecutive months of May, June and July this year. Its new version was launched in March this year. "Creta has been the blockbuster model in the Indian automobile industry ever since its launch in 2015," HMIL Director (Sales, Marketing and Service) Tarun Garg sa

NEW DELHI, AUGUST 11 (IANS): Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) jumped 10 places to rank 96th in the Fortune Global 500 published on Tuesday. Its highest ranking so far was at 99 in 2012. In 2019, Reliance became India's top name in the Fortune Global 500 listing, drawn up on the basis of revenues. This year, too, Reliance maintained its pole position among Indian companies in the list. India has seven companies figuring in the 2020 edition. The 96th rank that Reliance Industries

NEW DELHI, AUGUST 11 (IANS): As the Emergency Credit Line Guarantee Scheme, specially formed for MSMEs, progresses, the government is considering allowing cooperative banks to lend under it too. Addressing a webinar at the 'FICCI-SBI Atmanirbhar MSME Virtual Conclave', Micro, Small and Medium Industries Minister Nitin Gadkari said that the government is discussing the matter with the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). "Cooperative banks that are not included as a member le

NEW DELHI, AUGUST 11 (IANS): Global technology company ABB India on Tuesday announced the launch of eMart, an online marketplace portal, which will offer more than 6,000 products from its electrification business for home and industrial buyers. This unique B2B and B2C platform is the first-ever initiative of its kind in the industry, owing to its dynamic, price-transparent model. It aims to provide an equally fair and favourable experience to both ABB distributors and customers, fur

NEW DELHI, AUG 11 : The Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) on Tuesday wrote to Union Minister for Communications Ravi Shankar Prasad seeking a ban on Chinese technology companies Huawei and ZTE from the 5G network rollout in India. The traders' body has been at the forefront of the protests against any form of participation of Chinese companies in the Indian market, ranging from retail to technology, and has been running a campaign for the same, post the border skirmish i

NEW DELHI, AUGUST 11 (IANS): Samsung on Tuesday said that the pre-registration for its 'Make in India Galaxy Note20 smartphone crossed more than 5 Lakh this year, which is more than double the figure the company achieved last year with Galaxy Note10. The South Korean major last week opened pre-booking for its Galaxy Note20 series in India, The 6.7-inch Galaxy Note20 (8GB+256GB) was launched at the original price of Rs 77,999 while the 6.9-inch Galaxy Note20 Ultra 5G (12GB+256GB)

MUMBAI, AUGUST 10 (IANS): The Union Bank of India on Monday announced a reduction in the marginal cost of funds-based lending rate (MCLR) by up to 15 basis points across tenors. The reduced MCLR would come into effect on Tuesday. This is the 11th consecutive rate cut announced by it since July 2019, the bank said in a statement Post the reduction, the one year MCLR now stands at 7.25 per cent, down from 7.40 per cent, the bank said in a statement. The overnight MCLR and one-month

New Delhi, August 10 (IANS): Leading digital payment service Paytm on Monday launched an Android-based, pocked-sized point of sale (POS) device that is enabled with integrated billing software, camera for QR scanning and supports 4G SIM cards Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity. Available for an introductory monthly rental of Rs 499, the 'Paytm All-in-One Portable Android Smart POS' can accept orders and payments on the go. Aiming to invest Rs 100 crore on the distribution a

Bengaluru, August 10 (IANS): E-commerce marketplace Flipkart on Monday launched its first startup accelerator programme to help new and upcoming companies in technology and consumer Internet space to grow, scale and navigate challenges. Called Flipkart Leap, the programme will identify business-to-consumer (B2C) and business-to-business (B2B) startups and help them scale through an intensive 16-week virtual programme, the company said in a statement. Throughout the programme, Fli

Bengaluru, August 10 (IANS): Amazon India on Monday said that over 91,000 small and medium-sized businesses participated in the two-day Prime Day sales which saw 209 SMB sellers becoming crorepatis in 48 hours. Of the over 91,000 SMBs who participated at Prime Day that started at midnight on August 6, more than 62,000 sellers were from non-metro and tier-2 and tier-3 cities across India, the company said. Amazon said that 31,000 SMB sellers witnessed their highest sales ever with

New Delhi, August 9 (PTI): Domestic equity market will be largely driven by macro-economic data, companies' earnings and global cues in the coming week, analysts said. Besides, investors will keep tracking latest developments and trends on the COVID-19 pandemic front, like data on infection cases and fatality rates as well as update on vaccine trials. "With the rising US-China tensions and resurging COVID-19 cases, uncertainties are increasing, while the early positive d