German auto major Mercedes-Benz Wednesday reported 1.4 per cent increase in its sales in India with a record 15,538 units in 2018, retaining its leadership position in the luxury segment for the fourth year in a row. The company had sold 15,330 units in 2017, Mercedes-Benz India said in a statement.

Sales in 2018 were driven by an all-round performance across segments from the new-generation cars, sedans, SUVs and the AMG portfolio, it added.

New Delhi: Half-a-dozen investors, including ReNew Power Ventures Pvt. Ltd and Macquarie Infrastructure and Real Assets , are interested in acquiring the ₹5,000- crore clean energy business of debt-laden Infrastructure Leasing and Financial Services (IL&FS), said one person aware of the development.

It is not clear whether the telecom regulator, Trai, will explain the rationale behind its spectrum-pricing recommendations to the department of telecommunication (DoT), but a report in The Economic Times (ET) suggests it may not do so readily. ET quotes unnamed Trai officials as saying that, while the law allows DoT to ask Trai to reconsider its recommendations, there is nothing that says Trai has to give the rationale behind them. In any case, Trai has maintained, as FE reported last month,

TVS Motor Company on Tuesday joined other two-wheeler companies, including Hero MotoCorp, in seeking reduction of the goods and services tax (GST) rate on two-wheelers, pointing out that the mass commuting segment should not be treated on the lines of luxury goods. Raising concerns over the high GST rate, Venu Srinivasan, chairman, TVS Motor, said:

The BSE benchmark Sensex jumped over 200 points in opening trade. At 9:45, Sensex was up by 223.66 or 0.62% to trade at 36,178.41 points while Nifty was at 10,853.00 mark.

Asian shares climbed to a 3-1/2-week high on Wednesday, supported by growing optimism that the United States and China can strike a trade deal to avoid an all-out confrontation that would severely disrupt the global economy.

India's GDP is expected to grow at 7.3 per cent in the fiscal year 2018-19, and 7.5 per cent in the following two years, the World Bank has forecast, attributing it to an upswing in consumption and investment.

The bank said India will continue to be the fastest growing major economy in the world.China's economic growth is projected to slow down to 6.2 each in 2019 and 2020 and 6 per cent in 2021, according to the January 2019 Global Economic Prospects report released by the World Bank on Tuesday.

After the reservation for general class, Modi government could soon surprise the middle-class with more friendly annoucements. In order to lure the middle-class before 2019 polls, several media reports are claiming that Centre now mulling over to dole out income tax benefits in its last Union Budget that is set to be presented by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in about three weeks.

The merger of two Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) subsidiaries — Mangalore Refineries and Petrochemicals (MRPL) and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation (HPCL) — is unlikely to happen in FY19.

A source close to the development said, “At this pace, the deal is unlikely to happen in FY19. Neither the MRPL board has taken up the proposal nor a consultant has been appointed in this regard."

Paytm Travel, the online travel booking business of payment wallet Paytm, is bracing to overtake Nasdaq-listed MakeMyTrip in online bus and flight ticket bookings in FY20. The company sold 38 million rail, bus and flight tickets in FY18 with threefold growth over FY17 and is aiming to close the current year with sale of over 70 million tickets.

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) is working on improving its analytical capabilities.

The move is to aid surveillance and other functions, according to Chairman Ajay Tyagi.

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