The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) has initiated a preliminary enquiry against information technology services major Infosys following allegations of unethical practices by a whistleblower.

The market regulator has received the whistleblower’s letter along with voice recordings and emails supporting his claims. “The allegations are serious in nature. A proper enquiry into the matter is needed.

Just days before Diwali, the government has taken a decision to lift the air of uncertainty over the two public sector telecom behemoths — Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd (MTNL). While approving a package of nearly Rs 70,000 crore for the two financially stressed entities, the Union Cabinet on Wednesday also drew up a timeline to merge them.

Bajaj Auto today reported better-than-expected earnings for the quarter ended September 30, pushing its shares 2% higher in afternoon trade. Bajaj Auto shares were up 2% at ₹3,186 as compared to a 0.44% rise in Sensex. The automaker's profit rose 22% to ₹1,402 crore, aided by a tax expense reversal of ₹182 crore due to the recent lowering of corporate tax rate.

In a first-of-its-kind move by an e-commerce company, Amazon optimising its delivery boxes to increase customer engagement has announced Storyboxes — a packaging initiative where Amazon shares the growth journey of its sellers on the boxes. The company started the initiative during its annual Great Indian Festival sale (September 29 – October 4) to print the stories of its six sellers as of now. The company is looking to increase the number of such sellers’ stories ahead.

Even as Infosys battles whistleblower allegations of using aggressive accounting methods to boost its revenues and margin, a US-based law firm, Rosen Law Firm, which specialises in securities class actions, said it was preparing such a suit to recover losses suffered by the investors. “Rosen Law Firm is preparing a class action lawsuit to recover losses suffered by Infosys investors,” it said in a statement.

Department of Telecommunications has again sought relief for the beleaguered Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd with fewer demands, essentially translating into lesser cash outgo by the Centre.

It is learnt that DoT has sought funds for the voluntary retirement schemes of the two sick units and allotment of 4G spectrum, besides proposing to raise finances by monetising assets.

SBI Life Insurance Company today entered the coveted Rs 1 trillion market capitalisation (market-cap) club after its share price hit a fresh all-time high on the National Stock Exchange (NSE). The stock of the life insurance company hit a new high of Rs 1,012 on Wednesday in the intra-day deal.

Following the uptick in the counter, SBI Life’s market cap crossed Rs 1-trillion mark or Rs 1,01,200 crore in intra-day trade today.

The total debt and liabilities of Air India (AI) have risen to over Rs 45,500 crore at September end, up Rs 5,000 crore from the level seen after the April takeover of its Rs 29,464-crore debt by the Centre through a special purpose vehicle, sources told FE.

The increase over the first half of this fiscal is largely due to short-term loans, an official source said. At the end of last financial year, the state-run airline’s debt had stood around Rs 70,000 crore.

Bharti Infratel will announce the next course of action regarding its merger with Indus Towers in the next couple of days, as the company is set to miss the October 24 deadline to complete the deal.

As per Bharti Infratel chairman Akhil Gupta, the company has received most of the government approvals except for the one pertaining to the foreign direct investment (FDI) and as a result of that, the merger cannot be completed by October 24.

Market regulator Sebi on Tuesday moved the Supreme Court challenging the Securities Appellate Tribunal’s order that quashed its two-year ban imposed on audit firm Price Waterhouse (PW) in the wake of the Satyam Computer fraud in 2009.

Sebi had in January last year barred Price Waterhouse (PW) and two auditors — S Gopalakrishnan and Srinivas Talluri — from auditing listed companies and had also directed the latter not to engage any audit firm forming part of the Price Waterhouse network.

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