KOLKATA: Coal-fired power plants with total installed capacity of around 9,000 MW are asking for extension of temporary coal supply contracts for at least six years, since they have not been able to start production from the captive blocks allotted to them more than three years ago.

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) has made major changes in rules governing fund-raising, to provide flexibility to issuers and to boost capital formation.

The regulator tweaked norms governing stock exchanges, clearing corporations and depositories —known as market infrastructure institutions (MIIs) — capping the tenure of top officials and bringing in more accountability to the board structure.

Gold prices inched up early on Friday after hitting a 6-month low the session before, with the dollar retreating from an 11-month peak.

Spot gold was 0.1-per cent higher at $1,268.24 an ounce by 0057 GMT. It touched its lowest since Dec. 19 at $1,260.84 on Thursday. U.S. gold futures for August delivery were nearly unchanged at $1,270.20 per ounce.

Shares of Reliance Industries (RIL) hit a new high of Rs 1,031, up 1% on the BSE in intra-day trade on Thursday. The market value of the Mukesh Ambani-led RIL appreciated by 50% from its 52-week low of Rs 686 recorded on July 3, 2017 in intra-day deal.

In past one year, the stock outperformed the market by surging 45% as compared to 14% rise in the S&P BSE Sensex.

Maruti Suzuki India (MSI) maintained its leadership position in the domestic passenger vehicle (PV) market in May as seven of its models featured in the top 10 selling brands.

According to the latest data from Society of Indian Auto-mobile Manufacturers (SIAM), in the top 10 best selling PVs, Maruti’s Alto retained the top position in May with the sales of 21,890 units as against 23,618 units a year ago.

To encourage Smart Cities, the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs has announced nine awards in three categories that include Project Award, Innovative Idea Award and City Award under the India Smart Cities Awards.

Surat city has been selected for the best city award under the Smart City Mission’s award for showing great momentum in implementation of projects especially in the categories of urban environment, transport and mobility and sustainable integrated development.

The benchmark Sensex climbed over 123 points to 35,670.39 in opening tradeled by gains in index heavyweight Reliance Industries, amid continued buying by domestic institutional investors.

The 30-share index was quoting higher by 123.06 points, or 0.35 %, at 35,670.39. It had gained 260.59 points in the previous session.

Microsoft announced on Wednesday that it has signed an agreement to acquire Bonsai, an artificial intelligence (AI) startup based in San Francisco, to boost its AI and machine learning capabilities. Microsoft said its acquisition of the small startup is “another major step forward in our vision to make it easier for developers and subject matter experts to build the “brains — machine learning model for autonomous systems of all kinds.”

Odisha Slurry Pipeline Infrastructure (OSPIL), which owns the pipeline carrying iron ore to Essar Steel, has not been receiving payments from the steelmaker, Sunil Kanoria, vice-chairman, Srei Infrastructure Finance, has confirmed. Essar Steel is currently in the midst of a corporate insolvency resolution process. Kanoria told FE that since the pipeline is a leased asset, payments should have been regular. “It’s an operating expense and the company should have paid the monthly rentals.

The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has clarified that telecom operators can provide internet telephony to its subscribers using internet services from other service providers. Internet telephony services are untethered from the underlying access network. Hence, internet telephony service can be provided by telecom operators using internet service of other service providers, a DoT notification said.

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