Telecom majors Vodafone India and Idea Cellular have agreed to sell their respective tower businesses in India to ATC Telecom Infrastructure Private (ATC TIPL) for Rs 7850 crore or $1.2 billion. The two operators have about 20,000 towers.

Vodafone and Idea are in the process of merging operations to create the largest mobile operator in the country.

To study microgravity’s effect on bacterial antibiotic resistance, scientists are set to send E. coli, a common bacterial pathogen linked to urinary tract infections and foodborne illnesses, to the International Space Station (ISS).

The E. coli AntiMicrobial Satellite (EcAMSat) mission is scheduled to launch to the ISS on Orbital ATK’s Cygnus cargo spacecraft on Saturday along with a slew of other science experiments and supplies for the Expedition 53 crew, Space.com reported.

Engineering conglomerate Larsen and Toubro (L&T) on Saturday reported a rise of 31.86 per cent in its consolidated profit after tax (PAT) for the second quarter (Q2) ended September 30.

The company’s PAT for the quarter stood at Rs 2,020.30 crore against Rs 1,532.15 crore reported during the corresponding quarter of the previous year.

How the country’s largest lender performs speaks volumes about the health of the overall economy. To that effect, State Bank of India (SBI’s) second quarter results had some good news and a lot of bad omens.

The banking behemoth reported a welcome drop in its bad loan ratios and a sharp fall in fresh slippages sequentially, which suggests the economy is on the mend, with corporate deleveraging under way. SBI’s gross non-performing assets (NPAs) slipped to 9.83% for the second quarter from 9.97% in the previous quarter.

City-based equity crowdfunding platform OurCrowd has tied up with Reliance Industries, Reliance Private Client, Yes Bank and Let’s Venture to cash in on India’s burgeoning fintech ecosystem, OurCrowd chief executive officer Jon Medved said. “We think that India is highly under-invested and it’s going to be an explosive market over the next couple of decades,” Medved said. OurCrowd enables start-ups to connect with prospective investors and is currently distributing its products to high-networth clients of Reliance Private Client.

Owing to a slow pick-up in rural markets following the implementation of the goods and services tax (GST) and inventory correction made by the companies after supplying a record number of vehicles since July, the passenger vehicle segment reported a marginal decline in October. This is the first time that the car market witnessed a decline in dispatches since June when carmarkers did not push inventory into dealerships before the introduction of the GST. Carmarkers also had a high base in the corresponding period since both Navratri and Diwali were in the same month last year. According to the latest data from the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) for October, the passenger car segment witnessed a 5.3% Y-o-Y decline in volumes to 1,84,666 units, while the same for the utility vehicles space increased 12.45% Y-o-Y to 79,323 units.

Mahindra and Mahindra (M&M) on Friday reported a 25% year-on-year rise in its standalone net profit to Rs 1,332 crore for the three months ended September 30, 2017. The net profit was higher than analysts’ estimates, and was driven by impressive tractor sales during the quarter. Net sales for the country’s largest tractor manufacturer surged 14% to Rs 12,182.07 crore while the operating margin expanded. The company reported EBITDA of Rs 1,729.26 crore, up 45.5%, while the EBITDA margin was up by 310 basis points to 14.2%. Pawan Goenka, managing director, told analysts in a conference call, “Margins have risen due to a favourable model mix in the quarter and because we have passed on commodity price increases to customers by way of increase in prices. We also cleared out all the inventory with a BS III (Bharat Stage 3) or GST impact out in the last quarter.”

A special CBI court here has acquitted two persons in a corruption case, citing lack of evidence and the prosecution’s failure to prove the charges. Special judge P S Tarare recently acquitted a former convener of the Oil Sector Officers Association (OSOA), Ashok Singh, and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited (HPCL) executive Shishir Kumar Dubey. The CBI had filed the charge sheet against Singh, who was then Chief Regional Manager at HPCL’s Vashi Regional Office, and station manager Dubey for allegedly manipulating petrol pump meter readings and misappropriating funds between 2004 and 2007.

The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) is set to hold a meeting of its executive committee on November 16 to discuss the way forward in the matter of road developers that have been listed as defaulters and barred from bidding for further projects. According to sources, the NHAI is expected to invite the National Highways Builders Federation (NHBF) for the meeting to give them the opportunity to discuss the grievances of their members.

The government has approved a proposal made by an industry consortium led by tech major Microsoft to train chief information security officers (CISOs) and other information technology officers from the Centre, states, banks and public sector enterprises (PSUs) on cyber security-related challenges. Officials concerned with technology-related work in the defence ministry, army, air force and navy are also expected to participate in the programme. The programme — Cyber Surakshit Bharat — which will be held in participation with the National e-Governance Division (NeGD) has been approved by electronics and IT minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, an official said.

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