Mumbai: The Indian rupee on Thursday strengthened against the US dollar after local equity markets gained over 350 points.

The home currency closed at 66.19, up 0.17% from its previous close of 66.30. The local unit opened at 66.12 a dollar and touched a high and a low of 66.05 and 66.23, respectively, in intra-day trade.

A gold deposit scheme launched amid fanfare by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi two weeks ago has so far attracted only 400 grams, an industry official said on Thursday, out of a national hoard estimated at 20,000 tonnes.

Modi has urged Indians to put gold stashed in homes and temples in the bank, offering modest rates of interest that earlier schemes have lacked. His government has also launched 'paper' gold in the form of gold-backed bonds.

Engineering major Punj Lloyd has bagged two rural electrification contracts worth Rs 483 crore from NTPC for Puri and Koraput districts of Odisha.

These two contracts are awarded under Rajiv Gandhi Grameen Vidyutikaran Yojana of 12th Plan (2012-17), the company said in a press release today.

Pegging on its predominantly young audience, Instagram is trying to woo Indian brands to advertise on the photo blogging platform. Claiming that the platform with over 400 million users globally has seen a doubling of its user base in India in the past year, Facebook India managing director Krithiga Reddy said brands can optimise their reach by using Facebook and Instagram together.

With Tamil Nadu reeling from monsoon fury, Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa on Thursday apprised the Centre of the flood situation in the state and said her government would submit a detailed memorandum seeking central assistance by next week.

In a telephonic talk with Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh, she apprised him of the situation and sought a central team to make assessment after which the Minister assured her that it will be deputed once the Centre receives the memorandum, the state government said.

The Indian equity markets are still soaring high, after a gap-up opening, mainly on the back of short-covering and strength witnessed in global peers. The broad based rally across the banking and auto shares lifted the sentiment.

Overnight, the Wall Street jumped euphorically post the released of US Federal Reserve’s meeting minutes that hinted at raising the interest rates in December as it feels confident about the health of the world’s largest economy.

MUMBAI: The benchmark BSE sensex rebounded by over 184 points in early trade on Thursday following a flurry of buying by investors amid positive Asian cues.

A strong reading in the rupee, rising by over 20 paise against the dollar in early trade, also supported the gains.

The odds continue to stack up against Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd (Bhel), the country’s largest power equipment maker. Weak order inflows, delayed execution, profitability pressure and operating loss haunted the first two quarters of fiscal 2016. But things are unlikely to get better soon. Here’s why:

Order inflows for the first six months at Rs.22,000 crore may have been about 50% higher on the abysmally low base of the year-ago period.

Fresh after a meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Lenovo CEO and Chairman Yang Yuanqing said he had committed to more investments in India.

“We will invest more in India, and only in manufacturing. Almost all our PCs are made in India and we recently announced smartphone manufacturing also. We will invest in R&D also and that is my commitment to PM Modi,” he said at a Lenovo Innovation Showcase in New Delhi. He said the conversation with Modi was good and “was encouraged by his vision”, adding that they also spoke about Digital India. “It is very encouraging.”

GMR group announced the revision of power tariff for GMR Kamalanga Energy, an SPV of GMR Energy, following an order passed by the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (CERC) on November 16. GMR Kamalanga had submitted an application to CERC for determination of the tariff under the power purchase agreement (PPA).

Pending order of the CERC, GMR Kamalanga was being reimbursed at Rs 2.75 per unit of total tariff. Consequent to the CERC order, GMR Kamalanga will be entitled for a price of FY14, which shall be approximately Rs 3.97 per unit and Rs 3.4 per unit thereafter.

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