The Supreme Court on Monday sought a response from the Centre on a plea alleging that the recent amendments to the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act, 2010 have opened the doors to unlimited political donations from foreign firms.

A bench comprising Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices A M Khanwilkar and D Y Chandrachud issued a notice to the Union Ministry of Home Affairs on the plea filed by the Association for Democratic Reforms and others and tagged it with other similar pending petitions.

In a move set to boost India-China trade, the government on Monday announced the slashing of import duties on as many as 3,142 items from China and 5 other nations from the Asia Pacific, days after Beijing had done the same for more than 8500 items.

The reduction in tariff by both nations are part of their commitments to liberalise trade further through the Asia Pacific Trade Agreemment (APTA) and will be in effect from July 1.

The Madras High Court has ordered the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) to re-do the charges it has fixed on the access facilitation and others, as its assessment of factors to arrive at these charges lack transparency. The telecom regulator has to arrive at new charges in six months, ensuring transparency. The order was issued in appeals filed by Tata Communications and Bharti Airtel against a single judge order, which upheld the Trai’s decision on the tariff. The matter pertains to a complex technology and technical equipments by which various communication service providers in India are linked to the rest of the world by way of submarine fibre cables, which run beneath the sea.

On Air India's disinvestment, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has said his government doesn’t want to be accused of selling something cheaply.

In an interview to Swarajya magazine, Modi said he disagreed with the perception that his government had been half-hearted at divesting from public sector entities. He said it had undertaken “significant disinvestment”.

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) has issued a directive to ICICI Prudential Mutual Fund (MF) for allegedly violating the MF code of conduct by making a large investment in the initial public offering (IPO) of its group firm ICICI Securities. The investment allowed the IPO to meet a minimum subscription requirement, without which it would have failed.

State-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) has asked the telecom regulator TRAI to allow it to issue e-bills or soft copy of phone bills to its customers as a default option, unless a subscriber specifically “opts out” of the mode and insists on a printed version. The telecom regulator is likely to come out with a discussion paper in a month or two, seeking public view on the issue of generation of soft bills by default, a Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) official familiar with development told PTI.

The BSE Sensex fell 159 points to end at 35,264.41 today on profit booking in recent gainers led by metal, power and infrastructure stocks amid weak global cues.

The NSE Nifty also slumped below the 10,700-mark, weighed down by Bharti Airtel, NTPC, HUL, Adani Ports, RIL, ONGC, Adani Ports and HDFC Bank.

ITC Limited on Monday said it planned to add 2,500 rooms to its hotel segment to take the total inventory to 12,000 in five years from 9,500 now, even as the diversified group mulls foraying into the healthcare space.

Sanjiv Puri, ITC Managing Director, said the company would invest Rs 25 billion in the next two to three years in Telangana, among others,to set up an integrated consumer goods manufacturing unit and logistics facility and for the capacity augmentation and efficiency of Bhadrachalam Paperboard.

Bajaj Auto on Monday reported a 65 per cent jump in total sales to 4,04,429 units for June.

The company had sold 2,44,878 units in the same month a year ago.

Its motorcycle sales also increased by 65 per cent to 3,37,752 units as against 2,04,667 in June last year, Bajaj Auto said in a BSE filing.

Home-grown auto major Mahindra and Mahindra (M&M) on Monday reported 22 per cent rise in total tractor sales to 40,529 units in June.

It had sold 33,093 units in June last year.

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