MUMBAI: The rupee gained 19 paise to 67.44 against the dollar in early trade on Thursday on sustained selling of the US currency by exporters and banks amid a higher opening in the domestic equity market amid foreign fund inflows.

This was the third consecutive day of rise for the domestic currency.

New Delhi: In what could be seen as a strategic pricing cut to counter Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd’s offers, Bharti Airtel on Thursday announced free voice calls across India bundled with 300 MB of 4G data at Rs145. The offer is available for prepaid customers and valid for Airtel-to-Airtel calls.

The lowest tariff plan announced by Reliance Jio costs Rs149, and offers free calls and 300 MB data bundled together.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley will table in Parliament a notification that will exempt credit and debit card transactions up to Rs 2,000 from the levy of service tax.

The move is aimed at promoting electronic transactions following the demonetisation of high value currency notes from the midnight of November 8 onwards.

The benchmark Sensex staged a strong comeback by rising over 300 points in early trade on Thursday on widespread buying by participants tracking a global market in anticipation of the European Central Bank extending stimulus. Also, the broader NSE Nifty again went past the key 8,200-mark in the process.

The 30-share index was trading significantly higher by 314.05 points at 26,551.41 with all the sectoral indices led by metal, auto, PSU and capital goods trading in the green, rising by up to 1.64 %.

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) is considering a steep increase in the minimum net worth requirement for registrar and transfer agents (RTAs).

The markets regulator recently met RTAs, where the issue of raising the net worth to as much as Rs 2 crore was deliberated. Under the current provisions, the minimum capital required is Rs 50 lakh.

Tata Motors, India’s biggest commercial vehicle manufacturer, is keen to enter the load aggregator space, after the sector saw its first corporate action a year ago with the entry of Mahindra & Mahindra, the country’s second-biggest CV maker.

A senior company official said that given Tata Motors’ large and loyal consumer base it makes business sense to tie up with its clients for providing this add-on service. Tata Motors is exploring the idea of making an equity investment in a start-up for which it is already talking to a few companies.

Information technology major Wipro has said it will work with select start-ups in India that are associated with Microsoft Accelerator to help them scale their business and take them to customers globally.

Wipro will also look at start-ups to identify innovative solutions and products they can build in its offerings and help generate value for its customers.

NASA has awarded a $127 million contract to the California-based satellite company Space Systems/Loral for giving shape to its robotic spacecraft equipped with the tools, technologies and techniques needed to service satellites currently in orbit.

During its mission, the Restore-L servicer, a free-flying mission projected to launch in 2020, will rendezvous with, grasp, refuel and relocate a government-owned satellite to extend its life.

Indian Oil Corporation, Bharat Petroleum Corporation and Hindustan Petroleum Corp today signed a pact to build India's biggest oil refinery at a cost of $30 billion on the west coast.

The three firms signed the pact for the 60-million tonne a year refinery in Maharashtra with IOC as leader of the consortium, officials said.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been shortlisted by Time magazine for its annual honour of Person of the Year alongside US President-elect Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin. Time editors shortlisted 11 candidates for the 2016 Person of the Year the publication's annual selection of the person who most influenced the news, for better or for worse. On Modi, Time said the Indian Prime Minister has guided his country's economy into position as the "emerging-market world's most positive story."

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