iPhone maker Apple has agreed to pay Ireland $15.46 billion in back taxes by early 2018.

ccording to Wall Street Journal, Irish Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe said on Monday that both sides agreed to the terms of an escrow fund for the money.

The Supreme Court on Tuesday will commence the final hearings in the long-standing Ayodhya dispute.

The first hearing is set a day before the 25th anniversary of the demolition of medieval-era mosque, Babri Masjid.

Activity in India's dominant services industry shrank in November as rising prices, driven up in part by the new national sales tax, took a toll on both foreign and domestic demand, a business survey showed on Tuesday.

November's Nikkei/IHS Markit Services Purchasing Managers' Index fell to 48.5 - its lowest since August - from 51.7 in October, well below the 50 mark that separates expansion from contraction.

Given the government’s inability to take tough decisions on privatising PSUs, it is not clear how it plans to take away various performing oil/gas fields from ONGC and give these away on a profit-share to various private oilcos—the one that promises the most output will likely win the bid and get a 60% share in these fields. These fields produce around a fourth of ONGC’s oil and gas output, so logically the PSU’s board has to oppose the move—unless the government can demonstrate to it that the increase in oil/gas will be so much after the fields are given to the private sector that ONGC stands to gain with even a lower equity share in the fields.

The benchmark BSE Sensex fell over 108 points in opening trade following a cautious stance adopted by participants ahead of the RBI policy review amid weak Asian cues.

The 30-share index fell by 108.10 points, or 0.32 per cent, to 32,761.62 as power, metal, infrastructure, capital goods, IT, teck, banking and auto stocks declined.

The Maharashtra government has declared a holiday for schools and colleges in Mumbai and adjoining districts on Tuesday due to "serious weather predictions" in view of Cyclone Ockhi.

An official at the Mumbai office of India Meteorological Department said on account of the cyclone, the megapolis has started receiving rainfall due to spread of clouds.

To push sales during the year-end period, automobile major Tata Motors on Monday said that it has launched a 'Mega Offer Max Celebration' sales offer.

According to the company, the offer provides an opportunity to customers "to drive home a Tata car at a down payment of Rs 1 and enjoy savings of up to 1 lakh, depending on the model and variant".

The department of telecommunications (DoT) would soon hear the pleas filed by leading telecom service providers Bharti Airtel, Idea Cellular and Vodafone India against the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India’s (Trai's) recommendation of October last year that a Rs 3,050-crore cumulative penalty be imposed on them for allegedly denying sufficient points of interconnection (PoIs) to Reliance Jio Infocomm, according to a news report in Livemint.

The telecom department had asked the operators to make their presentation by December 6. However, Bharti Airtel and Idea Cellular have raised a request to defer the meeting and Vodafone has not yet responded, according ot a senior DoT official quoted in the Livemint report.

The Reserve Bank of India's six-member Monetary Policy Committee is set to meet on December 5-6 for the fifth bi-monthly policy review. The central bank is unlikely to change repo rate. Some bankers and economists are also expecting status quo on repo rate. This author discusses why the RBI should not cut rates right now.

RBI had maintained status quo on policy rates in its last review. It cited risks due to higher inflation, largely emanating from rising crude oil prices, uneven distribution of monsoon and amplified global geopolitical uncertainty. Other factors included increased volatility in financial markets as the US Fed unwound its balance sheet and domestic fiscal challenges.

NEW DELHI: Leading bourse National Stock Exchange (NSE) may have to file fresh draft papers with markets regulator Sebi to float an initial public offering after getting clarity on the co-location matter. However, the current preliminary IPO papers, which were filed with Sebi in December last year, will remain open, the exchange said.

The IPO is expected to be one of the biggest in recent times, with an estimated size of over Rs 10,000 crore, merchant banking sources said.

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