With a steady rise in domestic fossil fuel consumption making the country’s target of cutting import dependence on oil more challenging, state-run Oil and Natural Gas Corp. (ONGC) has decided to aggressively expand its acreage under exploration and production from July once the government starts accepting bids for 26 unexplored sedimentary basins.

The country’s largest oil and gas producer intends to increase its exploration and production acreage at least by 30% over the next few years from 90,000 square kilometers at present, a senior official said, asking not to be named.

Mumbai: Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) is targeting doubling its market share in fuel retail in the next two-three years as it expands the business, two people aware of the plan said. RIL currently has a 5% share of India’s fuel retail market.

“RIL is working on various plans to improve its market share in the fuel retailing segment. It is looking at all the markets it is not currently represented in, and these are areas other than urban markets,” said one of the two officials cited above. This person spoke on condition of anonymity as he is not authorized to speak to the media.

Indian banking is often in the news — sometimes as entertainment (around high-profile failed airline promoters), but mostly serious. The government’s recent NPA Resolution Amendment to the Banking Regulation Act is a serious development, which comes not a day too soon. NPAs now, at nearly Rs 9.6 lakh crore, account for 15 per cent of all bank loans and constitute a serious bottleneck to growth. However, is it kosher for RBI, as does the Central Bank (CB), to get operationally involved in the resolution of NPAs? And, is it enough?

Stock markets came off their peak and turned weak on Monday after two back-to-back sessions of gains as the benchmark Sensex cracked below 31,000-mark after investors indulged in profit-booking. Besides, muted earnings from some companies weighed on sentiment.

The 30-share index slipped below the 31,000-mark by falling 158.31 points, or 0.51%, to 30,869.90 as profit-booking set in recent gainers. The gauge had gained 726.57 points and closed at life high of 31,028.21 after scaling an intra-day record high of 31,074.07 on Friday.

The death toll from devastating floods in Sri Lanka on Sunday rose to 151 as rescuers pulled out more bodies from mudslides triggered by the country's worst torrential rains since 2003 that displaced nearly half a million people.

Sri Lanka has sought international assistance. India, the first country to respond, dispatched three Navy ships with emergency supplies to help Sri Lanka. The first Indian ship reached here yesterday.

Shares of Reliance Communications (RCom) fell as much as 15.11% to its all time low of Rs 21.95 on poor March-quarter earnings and worries over debt repayment.

Reliance Communications on Saturday reported loss of Rs948 crore for the fourth quarter, hurt by intense price war unleashed by newcomer Jio. It had registered net profit of Rs79 crore in the corresponding period of the previous year.

ITC hit a new high of Rs 320, up 3.6% on BSE in intra-day trade, extending its Friday’s 3% gain, after reported January-March quarter (Q4FY17) earnings.

At 10:41 am; the stock was trading 3% higher at Rs 318 on BSE, as compared to a marginal 0.03% rise in the S&P BSE Sensex.

The Indian car market has approximately 100 models, manufactured by about 15 companies. But only one-tenth of these have sales worth Rs 6,500 crore ($1 billion) or more as they clock large volumes and have been more successful.

The list of top 10 vehicles, value-wise, is dominated by the top two players in the market — Maruti Suzuki and Hyundai. However, Toyota, the third player on this list, scores and stands ahead of the two companies with its Innova Crysta.

An indigenous rocket as heavy as 200 full-grown Asian elephants could well be the one taking "Indians into space from Indian soil" as the country inches closer to joining the big boy's space club.

Standing tall on the rocket port at Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh is the country's latest rocket called the Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle Mark III (GSLV Mk- III), the heaviest rocket ever made by India that is capable of carrying the heaviest satellites till now.

Commercial vehicle major Ashok Leyland (ALL) said that it has got three-pronged approach for increasing electric buses market in India, which includes European technology and battery swapping technology.

ALL's Managing Director Vinod K Dasari said the company is bullish on the electric vehicle segment. He noted that the government is keen to buy around 20,000-25,000 electric vehicles. Besides Tata Motors, competition would be from Chinese players like BYD and European companies.

Inviting Real Estate Agents, Job Placements Agents, Educational Institutes, Software Service Providers, Real Estate Builders, Marriage Bureaus, Travel Agents, Restaurant Owners, Health & Fitness Centers and other Local Businesses to Post a FREE Classified Advertisement on Cootera.com Classifieds Website.