Markets regulator Sebi has notified stricter participatory notes (P-Notes) norms stipulating a fee of USD 1,000 that will be levied on each instrument to check any misuse for channelising black money. The new measures, which follow a slew of other steps taken by Sebi in the recent past, come at a time when the value of foreign investments through participatory notes or offshore derivative instruments (ODIs) has surged to a seven- month high of about Rs 1.81 lakh crore at May-end.

KOLKATA: State-run Coal IndiaBSE -0.34 % Ltd (CIL) has invited applications from independent power producers to take part in the auction of coal linkages under the Scheme for Harnessing and Allocating Koyala Transparently in India (Shakti), a notice said on Monday.

The miner asked "interested entities" to register on the website of auction firm MSTC Ltd "on or before August 7, 2017".

When the central banks start tightening their easy monetary policies, the rupee is expected to remain unscathed. Forex experts do not see a repeat of the taper tantrums of 2013 that plunged the rupee to an all-time low of 68.08 to the dollar on August 28, 2013, when central banks including the US Federal Reserve start normalising their balance-sheets. This time around they say rupee is all new story. Foreign exchange reserves is at an all-time high close to $386.37 billion as on July 14, 2017, according to the latest available data from Reserve Bank of India (RBI). The current account deficit (CAD) is narrowing and inflation is at a record low.

Private sector lender HDFC Bank on Monday reported 20.22 percent increase in net profit to Rs 3,893.84 crore for the quarter ended on June 30, 2017, compared to the same period last year. The bank had earned a profit of Rs 3,238.91 crore in the April-June quarter of last fiscal.

Total income rose to Rs 22,185.38 crore during the quarter under review, up 14.81 percent against Rs 19,322.63 crore in the same period last year, HDFC Bank said in a BSE filing.

After Tata Group and IndiGo, Air India’s privatisation bid has received yet another boost as private equity players KKR and Co and Warbug Pincus have expressed interest in acquiring the national carrier’s businesses, reported Live Mint.

The two buyout firms separately sought details of the proposed privatisation process cleared by the Union Cabinet in June 2017, two people aware of the development said.

State-run Hindustan Petroleum Corporation (HPCL) will retain its cultural uniqueness and brand identity even after the strategic sale of 51.11 per cent government equity in the company to the Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC), Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan informed the Lok Sabha on Monday.

The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs had given its in-principle approval for the sale of government equity in HPCL, along with the transfer of management control to ONGC, on July 19 this year.

The 9% drop in Ashok Leyland Ltd’s June quarter truck sales may have been partly due to BS-IV transition and goods and services tax (GST) implementation issues.

This was also very untimely in that the regulatory changes came amid rising costs that accelerated at a faster pace than sales growth. Obviously, it dented the June quarter’s profitability severely.

Tech companies are keen to bring cool artificial intelligence features to phones and augmented reality goggles—the ability show mechanics how to fix an engine, say, or tell tourists what they are seeing and hearing in their own language. But there’s one big challenge: how to manage the vast quantities of data that make such feats possible without making the devices too slow or draining the battery in minutes and wrecking the user experience.

Microsoft Corp. says it has the answer with a chip design for its HoloLens goggles—an extra AI processor that analyzes what the user sees and hears right there on the device rather than wasting precious microseconds sending the data back to the cloud.

The latest financial performance of the big three of Indian IT industry—Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) , Infosys and Wipro—underscores the fact that the macro-economic challenges still persist with business momentum not picking up and net profits dropping. In short, the prospects of a double digit growth rate is still far away. The first quarter of FY18 for this top three companies has been consistent on one point —declining net profits. If TCS’s net profit dropped on a quarter-on-quarter (QoQ) basis by 10%, it was 3.3% for Infosys and 8% in the case of Wipro. The twin factors which affected their bottomline performance were wages hikes and the appreciating rupee against the US dollar.

Solar power developers are set to oppose the recent directive of the Uttar Pradesh government asking them to lower tariffs under extant power purchase agreements (PPAs). While indications are that the regulator’s view is also not favourable to them, developers might resort to litigation. Stating that PPAs had been signed when equipment prices were high, the government asked developers to revise tariffs to match the lowest bid of Rs 7.02 per kwH in relevant auction. The government’s move was also prompted by the fall in solar power tariffs in subsequent auctions conducted in the country.

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