Air India is planning to sell its properties and land parcels across the country. Civil aviation minister Ashok Gajapathi Raju met finance minister Arun Jaitley on Thursday to decide the process.

Sources privy to the discussions say the idea is to sell real estate assets in cities, airport locations, and airline offices at prime locations. A consultant will be appointed to make a detailed inventory report of the assets and fix a proper valuation for them. The entire process will be reviewed by a committee, which will comprise of secretary-level officials from the civil aviation ministry and finance ministry, people from Air India, and a retired judge.

Shares of TVS Motor Company surged over 5% to hit its 52-week high after the auto major posted a growth of 15.7% in sales during the month of May 2017, at 282,007 units as compared to 243,783 units sold during the month of May 2016.

The stock of the company rose as much as 5.5% to Rs 565 on the BSE. Over 1 lakh shares exchanged hands on the counter against its two-week average of 50,000 shares.

Auto major Mahindra & Mahindra today reported 3 per cent increase in total sales at 41,895 units in May. The company had sold 40,656 units in the same month last year, the company said in a statement. In the domestic market, sales were up 10.89 per cent at 40,602 units last month compared to 36,613 units in May 2016. Exports were down 68 per cent at 1,293 units in May against 4,043 units in the same month last year.

Even as reports of the government looking to sell Air India gain ground, the national carrier is expected to report an operating profit of close to Rs 300 crore for FY17, up from Rs 105 crore in 2015-16. Senior executives told FE passenger revenues grew to Rs 16,200 crore last year. This will be only the second year since the merger with Indian Airlines in 2007 that the airline will report an operating profit. It has not posted a net profit in a decade.

The government is said to be planning to combine the state-run refiner Hindustan Petroleum Corp Ltd with the giant oil explorer Oil and Natural Gas Corp by December this year by selling its 51.1% stake in the former to the latter for $4.5 billion (about Rs 29,000 crore), ET Now reported citing wire reports, which in turn cited unidentified sources.

The Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas is learnt to be in favour of adopting a subsidiary model for combining the two oil PSUs instead of merging the companies, making ONGC the parent company of HPCL, the report said. However, the government will decide final model of combining in few months, it added.

WASHINGTON: NASA is set to launch the world's first mission to the Sun next year, that will explore our star's atmosphere and answer questions about solar physics that have puzzled scientists for over six decades.

The Parker Solar Probe has been named in honour of pioneering astrophysicist Eugene Parker, who predicted the existence of the solar wind nearly 60 years ago, the US space agency announced yesterday.

Railways have decided to provide the 'buy tickets now and pay later' service for any Express trains, an IRCTC official said on Thursday.

According to the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) Ltd official, soon passengers would be able to buy tickets from the IRCTC website and pay later.

The rupee firmed up by another 8 paise to 64.43 against the US dollar on Thursday on increased selling of the American currency by exporters and banks even as India's economic growth slowed to 7.1 per cent in 2016-17.

India's economic growth slowed to 7.1 per cent in 2016- 17, the year in which 87 per cent of the currency was demonetised, despite a very good showing by the agricultural sector.

The BSE Sensex fell over 75 points to 31,070 and the Nifty slipped below 9,600-mark in early trade on Thrusday as participants trimmed their positions, triggered by lower GDP numbers and core infrastructure sectors growth.

Trading sentiment suffered a setback after macroeconomic indicators such as GDP numbers and core sector growth showed that the country's economic growth has slowed down.

Former Australian Pacer and current mentor at Chennai's MRF Pace Foundation, Glenn McGrath has deemed Indian bowling attack as the most potent one among the team participating in the ICC Champions Trophy 2017 starting Thursday.

England is hosting 8 teams, including themselves, for what is also called a mini-World Cup tournament, from June 1-18.

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