A sharp rate cut may help in the overall economic recovery, but could hurt companies that are sitting on cash. A dip in rates shrinks interest income that adds to their bottom lines.

Companies such as Coal India, Hindustan Zinc, Nalco, Sanofi India and Pfizer fall in this category. They are struggling to deliver meaningful growth and a large slice of their profit comes from interest income.

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) on Tuesday exempted the Centre from the takeover code obligations for its investment in Dena Bank, Bank of India and Corporation Bank.

The Central government plans to infuse Rs 407 crore in Dena Bank, Rs 2,455 crore in Bank of India and Rs 857 crore in Corporation Bank. The infusion of capital, part of the government’s ‘Indradhanush’ initiative, would have triggered an open offer as the government’s stake in these banks would have increased by more than five per cent.

India’s third-largest mobile phone operator, Idea Cellular, on Tuesday said it was setting up infrastructure to launch fourth-generation (4G) services in 10 circles by June and said it would soon catch up with operators which had launched the service.

“I want to tell our investors that we are aware of market movements. We may be six months behind who chose to start earlier, but we will be catching up and are deploying 4G infrastructure as fast as we can,” chief executive officer Himanshu Kapania said during an analyst conference call on Tuesday.

This year could turn out to be a watershed for the country's largest real estate developer, DLF, as it seeks to monetise its huge portfolio of residential and commercial property to raise funds, which will enable it to reduce its debt (Rs 21,600 crore at the end of June) and tackle the slowdown. All told, the company wants to mop up Rs 10,000 crore from strategic sale to private equity.

Earlier this month, DLF announced that it will set up an equally-owned venture with GIC, Singapore's sovereign wealth fund, to develop two residential projects in New Delhi.

Tech giant Microsoft today launched commercial cloud services from its three data centres in India, giving companies an option to store their data locally.

The data centres are located in Mumbai, Pune and Chennai.

New York: The United States, Britain and France on Monday reaffirmed their support to India’s permanent membership of the UN Security Council as text-based negotiations to expand the most powerful wing of the world body begins in November.

During their meetings with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the leaders of the three countries also extended support to India’s desire to become a member of the four export control regimes, including the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) and Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR).

Bengaluru: Debt-laden Lanco Infratech Ltd has postponed asset sale by at least two years due to lower valuation for power assets, L. Madhusudhan Rao, executive chairman of Lanco Infratech, told reporters on Monday at the company’s annual general meeting (AGM).

Lanco Infratech—which has engineering, procurement and construction (EPC), power, solar energy, coal mining and infrastructure businesses—has a total debt of Rs.34,000 crore.

Bengaluru: Infosys Ltd has partnered with Palo Alto-based venture capital firm Vertex Ventures US Fund I Lp to boost its access to start-ups focused on disruptive technologies.

The move by Infosys Innovation Fund, which has an outlay of $500 million, puts India’s second-largest software services exporter in the league of technology titans such as Google Inc. that (through their corporate venture arms) have partnered with VC firms across the globe to find the next big thing.

Chinese eCommerce company Alibaba Group and its payments arm Ant Financial Services Group have agreed to make an undisclosed amount of investment in Indian mobile payment & commerce platform, Paytm. Ant Financial had earlier made its initial investment in Paytm in February 2015, while Alibaba will now become a new investor in Paytm after the completion of the transaction.

The new funding will be used to invest in marketing, technology and hiring talent. Investment in Paytm will enhance the ability of Alibaba and Ant Financial to tap opportunities in Indian mobile eCommerce marketplace and digital finance industry.

Wiping off its initial losses, the benchmark BSE Sensex recovered by almost 87 points and the NSE Nifty regained the 7,800-level as rate-sensitive stocks rallied after the Reserve Bank cut interest rate by 0.5 per cent on Tuesday.

The 30-share index, which had lost over 308 points in the opening trade, rebounded by 86.54 points, or 0.33 per cent, to 25,703.38 at 1115 hrs.

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