The rupee showed some strength to quote 21 paise higher at 67.11 against the dollar in early trade on Friday on fresh selling of the US currency by exporters and banks amidst higher opening in the domestic equity market.

Forex dealers said besides selling of the American currency by exporters and banks, weakness in the dollar against other currencies overseas after tepid inflation data supported the rupee.

With the Supreme Court making it clear that the government cannot insist that telecom companies undergoing merger and acquisition need to pay the one-time spectrum charge (OTSC) levied on them, the telecom department on Thursday said that the Bharti-Telenor deal will be approved in less than a month’s time and that the Idea-Vodafone merger will also be expedited so that it can be completed by June, the time frame set by the companies.

Walmart Flipkart deal: After the world’s largest retailer Walmart picked up a 77% stake in homegrown giant Flipkart, online czar Vijay Shekhar Sharma of Paytm called it a perfect answer to those who were dismissive of Indian start-ups. Commenting on the humoungous valuation garnered by Flipkart in the deal, Vijay Shekhar Sharma tweeted, “This is 1 Lakh crore+, all cash deal ! vI call it, perfect answer to those who were dismissive of Indian startups in an open-for-all market.

Suzuki Motor Corp on Thursday said it would earmark record investment this year for research and development into technologies such as electric vehicles (EVs) as it defends it dominance in its biggest market, India. Higher R&D costs and a stronger yen will push operating profit down 9.1 percent in the current financial year at Japan’s fourth-biggest automaker, offsetting record global vehicle sales.

Shares of Aditya Birla Group’s telecom company Idea Cellular crashed more than 8% to an 8-year low in the morning deals on Friday as telecom companies slump on the ‘Zero Touch’ post-paid plan by Mukesh Ambani’s telecom firm Reliance Jio Infocomm. Shares of major domestic telecom players such as Bharti Airtel, Reliance Communications slipped considerably in the early deals on Friday.

After capturing prepaid telecom customers, Reliance Jio has set sights on the lucrative set of postpaid users with a Rs 199 per month plan. Postpaid subscribers spend more than five times of an average pre-paid customer. Numbers shared by Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) show postpaid consumers constitute about 5 per cent of the market with an average spend of Rs 378 per month in 2017 against Rs 67.27 for prepaid users.

In March/April next year, HDFC Bank says it will start the process for deciding on a successor to Aditya Puri, its founding managing director and chief executive officer.

The successor will be announced by October 2019, a year prior to Puri stepping down from the charge in October 2020.

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) has asked the boards of the companies to split the post of chairman and managing director. The regulator has also asked them to have at least six independent directors, including a woman.

The changes need to be put in place in phases, the Sebi said, while setting a deadline of April 1, 2019 for the independent directors. The companies will have more time to split the CMD post, for which the deadline is April 1, 2020.

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court today directed the National Highways Authority Of India (NHAI) to ensure that the newly constructed Eastern Peripheral Expressway, which is aimed at decongesting Delhi, is inaugurated on or before May 31.

The apex court took exception to the 135-km Expressway, which envisages signal-free connectivity between Ghaziabad, Faridabad, Gautam Budh Nagar (Greater Noida) and Palwal, not being thrown open to the public despite being informed earlier that it would be inaugurated by April 20.

Mumbai: The government on Thursday said that there is a great deal of interest for disinvestment of Air India Ltd, amid the deadline for submission of preliminary bids ending this month.

The last date for submission of Expression of Interest (EoI) for the proposed 76% stake sale in debt-laden Air India is 31 May. Earlier this month, the government came out with clarifications related to the disinvestment.

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