Bengaluru: Amazon India chief Amit Agarwal said on Thursday that the online retailer plans to double down on its investments in India, especially in key areas such as digital payments and the Prime membership programme.

Agarwal also reiterated the e-commerce firm’s earlier claim that it was the largest online retailer in India and dismissed research reports that the company had lagged arch-rival Flipkart during the Diwali season sale.

L&T Finance Holdings on Thursday reported a 45.22% rise in its second quarter consolidated net profit at Rs 360.24 crore compared to the same period last year.This growth has been achieved after taking accelerated credit cost of Rs 277 crore in order to further strengthen the portfolio, the company said in a statement. Income from operations rose 14.19% on a year-on-year basis in the second quarter to Rs 2,383.82 crore. Total income rose by 16.49% to Rs 2,494.72 crore.The Average Assets under Management (AAUM) in the Investment Management business increased by 61% to Rs 52,749 crore.

HYDERABAD: Airport developer and operator GMR, and its equity partner Malaysia Airports Holdings Berhad, are looking at setting up investment funds for their next phase of global expansion.

While the size of Malaysia Airports' investment fund would be around $1.5 billion, GMR is yet to announce the size of its fund.

Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) will come out with its recommendations on guidelines for data privacy, security and ownership by January and is close to finalising suggestions for the Net Neutrality aspect. The recommendations on next round of spectrum auction will also be out before March 2018.

“Currently, there is a huge amount of monopoly and that monopoly is becoming bigger and bigger. We are saying you can use my data because we are using your application, but give us too so that we can use it for other purposes too... This should be finalised by December-January,” Trai chairman R S Sharma said.

YES Bank dipped 10% to Rs 299 on the BSE in early morning trade after the private sector lender saw significant weakening of its asset quality in September 2017 quarter (Q2FY18).

The bank’s gross non-performing assets (GNPA) ratio rose to 1.82% in Q2FY18 from 0.97% in June quarter (Q1FY18), while Net NPA rose to 1.04% from 0.39% in previous quarter. It saw a rise in NPAs by Rs 6,355 crore as the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) asked it to restate bad loan figures for FY17.

Global ratings agency Moody's on Thursday said private lender Axis Bank's asset quality may deteriorate further and more than what was previously expected over the next 12-18 months.

In addition, compared to the other rated Indian banks, the bank has been a laggard in recognising its asset quality problems, a credit negative for its credit quality, Moody's said in its statement.

As many as 14 companies have expressed an interest to collaborate with the government in the role of transaction and legal advisors for the divestment of national carrier Air India.

The Department of Investment and Public Asset Management (DIPAM) had earlier invited expressions of interest for appointing transaction advisors and law firms in assisting the strategic sale of the carrier. The mammoth deal includes an operating fleet of 142 aircraft comprising 65 A-320 aircraft, 15 B777 aircraft, 24 787 aircraft, 23 737-800 aircraft, 11 ATRs, and four B747 aircraft.

Market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) on Thursday revised the framework for 'block deals' by providing two separate trading windows of 15 minutes each and increasing the minimum order size to Rs 10 crore.

The move is aimed at ensuring confidentiality of the large trades and stable prices for such transactions. The block deal window is provided for buyers and sellers to execute trades for a large number of shares. Such deals are usually negotiated before their execution.

In a good news for the SBI customers, the bank has slashed Immediate Payment Service (IMPS) charges up to 80 pct. This latest development by the State Bank of India comes as a huge relief for the SBI customers. If the users are doing an online transaction of money after selecting IMPS option, then they will have to pay 80 pct less charge than what they used to pay earlier. The announcement was made by the State Bank of India on its Twitter handle on Wednesday afternoon. “Go Cashless with SBI: IMPS service charges now slashed up to 80 pct,” SBI tweeted from its official handle.

Infosys' second-quarter results saw former CEO Vishal Sikka's strategy getting a thumbs up and it will continue to drive the country's second-largest software services firm. Further, the company's board led by Nandan Nilekani gave a clean chit to Sikka over allegations of governance failure in the Panaya acquisition, with Infosys co-founder N R Narayana Murthy on Tuesday expressing his disappointment over the development. (Read more here)

While Nilekani, who returned to Infosys in August, has reviewed Sikka's strategy of driving a software plus services model that would bring more non-linear revenue and has retained the former SAP executive's vision, as reported earlier, the company's strategy has seen some changes.

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