India’s oil demand growth in 2018 rebounded from the slowest pace in four years as the country recovered from the shock of a cash ban and the roll out of a national sales tax.

The nation’s consumption of petroleum products rose 4.1 percent to about 210 million tons, the Oil Ministry’s Petroleum Planning and Analysis Cell said Friday. Growth improved from the preceding year’s 2.7 percent expansion, the slowest pace since 2013, as consumption was severely affected by a cash ban that crippled economic activity.

While Air India's passenger count rose by only 4 per cent in the December 2018 quarter, its revenue from passengers increased by 20 per cent on the back of better aircraft utilisation, said a senior official of the company.

"Due to better and efficient utilisation of aircraft fleet, the passenger revenue increased from Rs 4,615 crore in third quarter of 2017-18 to Rs 5,538 crore in third quarter of 2018-19," the official said.

YES Bank, India's fourth largest private sector bank, on Saturday said it has appointed Brahm Dutt as non-executive part-time chairman to the board.

In a statement, Yes Bank said, "Vide its letter dated January 11, 2019, the Reserve Bank of India, pursuant to the provisions of the Banking Regulation Act, 1949...has approved his (Dutt's) appointment as part-time chairman of Yes Bank's board up till July 4, 2020, as Mr Dutt attains the age of 70 years."

The global solar sector witnessed a total corporate funding and merger and acquisitions activity worth USD 9.7 billion in 2018, a 24 per cent drop compared to the year-ago period, according to a report. Mercom Capital Group said the total M&A and global corporate fundings, including venture capital (VC), debt financing and public market financing stood at USD 9.7 billion, a 24 per cent drop compared with the USD 12.8 billion raised in 2017.

Surrendering early gains, benchmark Sensex on Friday dropped 96 points to end at 36,009.84 as investors booked profits even as global equities rose.

The 30-share index opened on a strong note at 36,191.87, but failed to hold on its gains and settled 96.66 points, or 0.27 per cent, lower at 36,009.84. Intra-day, the gauge swung between 36,214.26 and 35,840.60.

State-owned power giant NTPC on Friday said it has raised Rs 4,000 crore via bonds issued through private placement basis.

Bidding for the bond issue opened on Friday and it received an overwhelming response, the company said in a statement.

Tata Motors on Friday reported 13.9 per cent decline in group global wholesales, including that of Jaguar Land Rover (JLR), at 1,00,551 units in December 2018.

Tata Motors’ group global wholesales in December 2017 stood at 1,16,677 units. Global wholesales of all Tata passenger vehicles last month stood at 59,898 units, lower by 14 per cent from the year-ago period, Tata Motors said in a statement.

Washington: President Donald Trump said on Friday he is planning changes including a possible pathway to US citizenship to foreigners holding H-1B visas, issued temporarily to highly educated immigrants who work in specialty occupations such as technology or medicine.

“H1-B holders in the United States can rest assured that changes are soon coming which will bring both simplicity and certainty to your stay, including a potential path to citizenship,” Trump said in a Twitter post.

We like Siemens India as a unique bet on the digitisation & automation opportunity alongside the traditional domestic transmission and distribution play. The company will be one of the key beneficiaries of the gradual adoption of new technologies by Indian companies, leveraging on the R&D support provided by the parent and the scalable nature of some digitisation solutions.

The Supreme Court on Friday gave further three weeks time to Reliance Communications (RCom) and Reliance Jio Infocomm (RJio) to resolve among themselves as to who will be liable for the past dues of the former once the spectrum trading deal between the two is cleared by the government.

At its last hearing on January 7, the court gave time to the two sides till Friday to resolve the matter after RJio refused to give an undertaking that it would pay the dues of RCom, if any came to light, once the trading deal was through.

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