A number of companies, including J Kumar Infraprojects and Parsvnath Developers, on Wednesday approached the Securities Appellate Tribunal (SAT) against Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) classifying them as shell companies.

Sebi defended the move even as several other firms are expected to take similar recourse and challenge the regulators decision asking stock exchanges to restrict trading in 331 firms referred to it by the government for being "suspected shell companies".

The government has tweaked the terms of sale of its 51.11 per cent stake in HPCL to ONGC by including phrases that will help avoid triggering an open offer, an official said.

The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) had on July 19 granted 'in-principle' approval for strategic sale of the government's existing 51.11 per cent stake in Hindustan Petroleum Corp Ltd (HPCL) to Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) "along with the transfer of management control, which will result in HPCL becoming a subsidiary company of ONGC".

Millions of companies in India are still not ready to file their first returns under the new Goods and Services Tax (GST) ahead of 20 August deadline, a top official told Reuters, urging them not to leave things to the eleventh hour.

Navin Kumar, chairman of the GST Network, also said barely half of the 34 service providers accredited to help firms bulk-file invoices online had received approval to go live.

Qatar will allow visa-free entry for citizens of 80 countries, with immediate effect, Qatari officials announced on Wednesday.

The countries include the UK, the USA, Canada, India, South Africa, Seychelles, Australia and New Zealand.

Citizens of those countries wishing to visit Qatar will not need to apply or pay for a visa; instead, a multi-entry waiver will be issued free-of-charge at the port of entry, upon presentation of a valid passport with a minimum validity of six months and a confirmed onward or return ticket.

Tata Motors owned Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) on Wednesday said it has opened bookings for the fifth generation of Land Rover Discovery.

The all-new Discovery will be available for sale in India from November 2017.

Customers can make their booking online or at any of the 25 authorised Land Rover retailers in India, JLR said in a statement.

Tata Motors Ltd posted a 42% rise in quarterly profit on Wednesday.

Profit was Rs 3,182 crore in the first quarter ended June 30, compared with Rs 2,236 crore a year earlier, the company said.

The automaker, owned by the software-to-salt conglomerate Tata Group, said its total income fell about 10% to Rs 59,972 crore versus Rs 66,339 crore a year ago.

The countdown to a military conflict between India and China has begun and New Delhi should come to senses and withdraw troops from Doklam before it’s too late, a Chinese daily said on Wednesday. An editorial in the state-run China Daily told India that the “clock is ticking away”. The piece was latest addition to the hostile commentaries in the Chinese media. The newspaper said “India will only have itself to blame” if it didn’t withdraw troops from Doklam where its troops are locked in a stand-off with the Chinese Army since mid-June.

Vikas Barala, son of Haryana BJP chief on Wednesday appeared before police in Chandigarh after being summoned in the stalking case.

Varnika Kundu, a daughter of a bureaucrat, had called up the police on Friday night complaining that two youth were chasing her along a stretch of over five km here.

Looking to bring in more liquidity in derivatives, the National Stock Exchange (NSE) has significantly lowered transaction charges in currency futures.

The decision is expected to help in reducing trading and hedging costs for various entities, including small and medium enterprises.

Congress candidate Ahmed Patel today beat the BJP nominee in a bitterly fought Rajya Sabha election in Gujarat after late night dramatic developments saw the Election Commission reject the votes of two dissident MLAs of the main opposition party for violating electoral rules.

Patel, political secretary to Congress president Sonia Gandhi beat Balwantsinh Rajput, till recently the party's chief whip in the state Assembly before defecting to BJP, polling 44 votes, in the first RS polls in Gujarat in two decades which saw a contest instead of official candidates of major parties getting elected unopposed. Rajput secured 38 votes.

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