New Delhi: Grappling a shortfall in tax revenues, the government has pressed cash-rich PSUs like Indian Oil Corp (IOC) and Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) to pay a second interim dividend for the current fiscal after seeking regulatory nods.

While IOC has called a board meeting on March 19 to consider paying a second interim dividend, ONGC has declined saying it does not have surplus cash to make such payments within a month of an interim dividend payout, sources with direct knowledge of the development said.

HDFC Bank, the country’s most valuable lender, on Wednesday achieved a key milestone on the bourses — when the market capitalisation of its share crossed the Rs 6 trillion (lakh crore) mark.

The private sector bank becomes the third company after Reliance Industries and Tata Consultancy Services to achieve this feat.

The BSE benchmark Sensex rose over 150 points on Thursday led by gains in financial stocks amid unabated foreign fund inflow and positive domestic cues.

The 30-share index was trading 141.80 points, or 0.38%, higher at 37,893.97, while the 50-share NSE Nifty climbed 33.75 points, or 0.30%, to 11,375.45.

Acko General Insurance has raised $65 million from Flipkart co-founder Binny Bansal, RPS Ventures led by Kabir Misra, ex-managing partner at SoftBank, and Intact Ventures. Existing investors such as Amazon, Accel, SAIF and TechPro Ventures have also participated in the Series C round, the firm said in a release on Wednesday. With this latest infusion, Acko has now attracted $107 million. Previously, Acko had raised $30 million in seed funding and later $12 million in a Series B round led by Amazon.

The National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) on Wednesday reserved its order on a petition by Reliance Communications seeking the release of income-tax refunds to clear dues of Ericsson India. Lenders of RCom have opposed the plea.

After hearing both the sides, the NCLAT bench headed by chairperson SJ Mukhopadhyay reserved the order in the case.

In a setback to Vodafone Idea, telecom tribunal TDSAT has ordered against the company’s plea that backhaul spectrum assigned to it be charged at 2002 rates, as against new rates prescribed by the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) in 2006.

However, the tribunal also said the DoT can’t coerce the company and other operators to pay the charges through a forced bilateral agreement by extending the threat of losing the backhaul spectrum if they do not sign on the dotted lines.

A 43-year-old businessman died in hospital in Powai last week, within almost 40 hours after he underwent a 12-hour-long hair transplantation procedure at a clinic, police said Wednesday.

The businessman, identified as Shrawan Kumar Choudhary, had attended a hair transplant session at a private clinic at Chinchpokli in central Mumbai on March 7, a police official said.

Reliance Industries Ltd., Venezuela’s top customer in India, has capped oil purchases from the Latin American country and halted selling diluent following U.S. pressure to cripple President Nicolas Maduro’s government.

“Our U.S. subsidiary has completely stopped all business with Venezuela’s state-owned oil company, PDVSA, and its global parent has not increased crude purchases," a Reliance spokesman said in an emailed statement.

Billionaire Azim Premji has announced he has raised his commitment for philanthropy by renouncing more of his personal assets and earmarking them to his Azim Premji Foundation endowment.

The Wipro chairman has done this by additionally earmarking all economic benefits for philanthropic purposes in about 34 per cent of the shares in Wipro (current market value at Rs 52,750 crore or $7.5 billion), held by certain entities controlled by him, the Foundation stated. Premji is also chairman of the Foundation.

Companies that have failed to comply with the Securities and Exchange Board of India’s (Sebi’s) 10 per cent cross-shareholding norm for asset management companies (AMCs) may now face the consequences. Sources said the market regulator might issue strictures against the firms as well as principal shareholders who have missed the March 12 deadline for reducing the stake to 10 per cent.

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