The railways may cut freight rates in a bid to boost economic growth, besides rationalising passenger fares. While Railway Board Chairman V K Yadav refused to say if passenger fares would see an increase, he hinted that freight rates might be reduced.

We are going to rationalise the fares and freight rates. Something is being thought about. I cannot divulge more as this is a sensitive subject. While freight fares are already high, our target is to draw more traffic from road to railways in this regard, Yadav said on Thursday.

Shares of HG Infra Engineering jumped over 10 per cent to Rs 269 apiece on the BSE on Friday, a day after the company said it has bagged a highway project worth Rs 522 crore in Haryana from the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI).

At 10:44 am, the stock was trading over 6 per cent higher at Rs 259. In comparison, the S&P BSE Sensex was trading 267 points or 0.65 per cent higher at Rs 41,431 levels.

Public sector banks (PSBs) were in focus on Friday, with Nifty PSU Bank index gaining more than 3 per cent on the National Stock Exchange (NSE), on expectation that the banks would benefit from lower yields on government bonds.

At 10:45 am, Nifty PSU Bank index was trading as the top gainer among key sectoral indices, and was up 3.2 per cent, as compared to a 0.64 per cent rise in the benchmark Nifty50 index.

Shares of ICICI Securities climbed 14 per cent to hit a 52-week high of Rs 415.15 on the BSE on Friday amid expectation of earnings improvement going forward.

The counter has seen huge activities with trading volumes rose more than two-fold today. A combined 766,750 equity shares had changed hands on the NSE and BSE till 10:14 am. In comparison, the S&P BSE Sensex was up 0.46 per cent at 41,354 points.

Making bus rides free for everyone and ensuring cleanliness in Delhi will be among the top agendas of the AAP if it is re-elected to power in the upcoming assembly elections, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said on Thursday. Kejriwal also promised installation of water and sewer pipelines, advanced drainage system, construction of roads, and ‘mohalla’ clinics in all the unauthorised colonies of the city.

Trinamool Congress supremo and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee urged the students community to remain united and continue their agitation against National Register of Citizens (NRC) and Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA).

Banerjee was speaking at a party rally from Rajabazar to Mullick bazar on Thursday.

In wake of protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act, the Uttar Pradesh administration has imposed Section 144 in the entire state as a preventive measure. Under the section, assembly of four or more people in an area is prohibited.

Internet services in several districts have also been suspended to curb the spread of fake information through social media. The affected districts include Bulandshahar, Agra, Sambhal, Bijnor, Saharanpur, Ghaziabad, Muzaffarnagar, Firozabad, Mathura, Shamli, and Aligarh.

Shares of Allahabad Bank bounced 10.98 per cent to Rs 19.70 per share on the BSE on Friday after the state-owned bank said the President has sanctioned fresh capital infusion of Rs 2,153 crore, to be released during the current financial year of 2019-20.

The President has sanctioned the release of fresh capital infusion fund of Rs 2,153 crore towards contribution of the Central Government in the preferential allotment of equity shares of the bank during the financial year 2019-20, as Government's investment, the bank said in an exchange filing, post-market hours, on Thursday.

Senior Congress leader P Chidambaram slammed the BJP on Thursday, saying with a focus on the National Population Register, Citizenship Amendment Act and a countrywide NRC, it wants to somehow implement its Hindu Rashtra project.

Speaking at a programme, organised by a Left-backed outfit, he also criticised the IIT Madras director over a German student, Jacob Lindenthal, being asked to leave the country allegedly because he had taken part in a protest against the CAA.

As the decade is coming to an end, it has seen an impressive 25x growth from a tiny $550 million in 2010 to $14.5 billion in 2019 in terms of the total funding raised by the start-ups.

This year start-ups raised $14.5 billion in 1185 funding rounds out of which 459 were Series A and late-stage investments, according to the ‘India Tech Annual Factsheet - 2019’ compiled by data analytics firm Tracxn.

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