Engineering and construction major Larsen & Toubro Ltd on Friday reported a 15.5% rise in its second-quarter net profit after generating more revenue from its infrastructure and power businesses, but missed analyst forecasts.

Larsen, a $15-billion business with interests in engineering, construction, financial services and logistics, said it made Rs Rs 996 crore in the three months to the end of September, up from Rs 861 rore a year earlier.

Cigartte-to-hotel-FMCG major ITC's July-September quarter earnings missed analysts' expectations on Friday with profit rising to Rs 2,431 crore from Rs 2,425 crore in year-ago period, impacted by slow revenue growth in cigarette business.

Weak revenue growth in agri-business, hotels and paper business also hurt bottomline. Strong margin expansion and other income helped profit rise marginally.

The National Association of Software and Services Companies (Nasscom), in association with Aon Hewitt, launched an industry report ‘The Transformation Agenda’ at the Nasscom HR Summit (North) in Gurgaon on Friday.

The report, which aims to understand the shifting business priorities, focuses on the implications of these shifts and the future of human resources (HR), the company said.

New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi is personally taking on India’s notorious red tape to clear tens of billions of dollars worth of stalled public projects, hoping that his hands-on intervention can bend a vast, dysfunctional bureaucracy.

Once a month, Modi holds a meeting with top state and federal bureaucrats to check why projects have not got off the ground. Since March this year, his intervention has helped revive nearly $60 billion in federal and state projects, according to government data through September seen by Reuters.

New Delhi: The government on Thursday announced tax breaks on income from offshore bonds in a bid to encourage foreign investors to buy rupee-denominated bonds.

The finance ministry in a statement said that a lower withholding tax of 5% will be applicable on interest income accruing to non-resident investors of these bonds, similar to the treatment given to offshore dollar denominated bonds.

Amazon India and its largest local rival, Flipkart, which was modelled on the American online retailer, are changing their strategies in diverging ways, as they seek to dominate India’s fast-growing e-commerce market.

Amazon India and Flipkart, the country’s biggest e-commerce firm, are supposed to operate as marketplace platforms that connect small merchants with buyers. They aren’t allowed to sell directly to shoppers.

Indian stocks climbed for the first time this week, with the benchmark gauge set for its biggest monthly advance since May, as investors awaited quarterly results of some of the nation’s biggest companies including ICICI Bank Ltd and ITC Ltd.

Dr Reddy’s Laboratories Ltd, the third-biggest drugmaker by market value, rallied to a record after its profit beat estimates. NTPC Ltd, the top power producer, surged the most since May last year. ITC, the largest cigarette company, fell for a fifth day, set for the longest losing streak since August.

Bharat Petroleum Corp Ltd is planning to launch an initial public offer (IPO) of its Bina refinery unit next year, chairman of the state-owned firm S Varadarajan said on Thursday.

India's second-biggest state refiner, BPCL will hold 50% in Bharat Oman Refineries Ltd (BORL), which had built the unit, while Oman Oil Company will hold the remaining 26%. The IPO "is planned for next year," Varadarajan told reporters.

NTPC, the largest state-owned power generator, posted an increase of 40% in its profit during quarter ending September 2015.

The unaudited profit after tax (PAT) for the Q2 of FY 2015-16 was Rs 2,898.28 crore as compared to the Rs 2,071.63 crore during same period last fiscal.

Munbai: Four months after the capital markets regulator made it easier for start-ups to raise money and trade on Indian stock exchanges, no entrepreneur has moved to seek a local listing, preferring instead to raise funds from venture capital (VC) and private equity (PE) firms or individual angel investors.

Tough promoter holding norms set by the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi), uncertainties about the valuations start-ups can attract and doubts over how liquid stocks would be after a listing are deterring start-ups from raising money through initial public offerings (IPOs), market participants say.

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