Decks have been cleared for Kerala government’s Rs 1,300-crore petrochemical park project in Kochi, after the Centre’s nod for buying land from Central PSU Fertilisers and Chemicals Travancore (FACT). Even as the chairman of the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC), one of the world’s biggest petroleum firms, came forward to invest in the proposed Kochi petro-park, there was uncertainty over the project due to dilly-dallying on the land transfer.

Wipro Consumer Care and Lighting hopes that the recent good monsoon would revive rural demand in the FMCG sector, which has been subdued due to factors like demonetisation, GST implementation, NBFC crisis and stressed bank assets.

Anil Chugh, chief executive of Wipro’s consumer care business, India, said their soap brand, Santoor, has a strong presence in the rural market.

Beating market expectations, ITC on Thursday reported a robust 36.16% year-on-year jump in its standalone net profit to `4,023.10 crore for the second quarter ended September 30, buoyed by 44.5% y-o-y lower tax expenses. Apart from lower tax outgo on the back of corporate tax cuts, the diversified conglomerate got larger benefits in terms of a massive decrease in its total tax expenses in the September quarter this fiscal, due to ‘re-measured’ deferred tax liabilities.

Jeff Bezos is about to relinquish the title of world’s richest person to Bill Gates, as Amazon.com Inc. stock tumbled in late trading Thursday.

Shares of the biggest online retailer dropped 8.1 per cent to $1,637 in extended trading at 4:24 p.m. in New York. At that price, Bezos would have a net worth of $102.8 billion, ranking him second, and almost $5 billion behind Gates, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. Bezos took the top spot from the Microsoft Corp. co-founder in October 2017.

Microsoft Corp's Azure cloud services grew more slowly in its first quarter even as profit and revenue beat estimates, the company said on Wednesday, a sign that competition is picking up in its fastest-growing business.

Revenue from Azure increased 59% in the quarter ended Sept. 30, but came in well below last year's 76% growth.

The higher cost of buying a new car and weak sales in the low-cost model category impacted the company’s earnings substantially in the second quarter of FY20, Maruti Suzuki India Limited (MSIL) Chairman RC Bhargava said. It comes as the country’s largest car manufacturer reported a 24 per cent drop in sales in the first half of the ongoing fiscal. Volume sales during the quarter under review stood at 3,38,317 units, down 30.2 per cent as compared with the same period last fiscal.

Industry body COAI on Thursday said the Supreme Court ruling on the telecom sector revenue definition will deal a “disastrous blow” to the industry, given its precarious financial condition. “The question that arises is whether this is the financial straw that finally breaks the back of operators,” Cellular Operators’ Association of India (COAI) Director General Rajan Mathews told PTI. Mathews further said this is a “disastrous blow” for the industry given its current state of acute stress.

Coal India Ltd (CIL) has decided to invest an estimated Rs 17,500 crore over the next five years to put in place completely mechanised transportation of coal through piped conveyor belts in its large mines by 2023-24 from the pitheads to despatch points which will replace road transportation wholly.

The stock prices of Indian multinational Infosys fell by 16% on Tuesday, following an anonymous letter by whistleblowers accusing Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Salil Parekh and Chief Financial Officer (CFO) Nilanjan Roy of indulging in unethical practices to boost revenue and profits in recent quarters.

India is likely to see some improvement in the annual Ease of Doing Business report of the World Bank, to be issued on Thursday.

The country was 77th among 190 countries in the previous ranking, an improvement by 23 places compared to its position a year before. Thursday's improvement is unlikely to be as much and, hence, the country's rank might not reach the Narendra Modi government's target of 50th place.

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