Tata Motors, the country’s biggest automobile maker, has received the votes needed for paying its executive directors (ED) according to plans that were earlier contested by shareholders and proxy advisory firms.

Remuneration to executive directors Ravindra Pisharody and Satish Borwankar, has been approved not only for the past financial year but for the current and next year. Remuneration to late managing director Karl Slym for last year has also been approved. Voting was carried out through a postal ballot for the special resolution.

Missing Street expectations the tobacco-to-hospitality giant ITC reported a net profit growth of 10.4 per cent at Rs 2,635 crore in the December quarter against Rs 2,385 crore in the year-ago period.

The below-par performance was a consequence of slow growth in the cigarette business. Revenue in ITC's cigarette segment grew 0.6 per cent year-on-year to Rs 4,142 crore. Analysts said ITC's decision to increase prices of cigarettes after the excise duty on these was raised pulled down sales volume by 15 per cent year-on-year.

Automobile major Maruti Suzuki and consumer durables maker Lloyd Electric have signed as on-air sponsors for the Cricket World Cup beginning February 14, sources say. When contacted, officials at STAR Sports, which will broadcast the tournament, confirmed this.

Through the tournament, Lloyd will promote its Lloyd Air Conditioners brand.

New York/London: Wipro Ltd, an Indian information-technology (IT) consulting firm that counts energy companies among its clients, said some of those customers have cut back on awarding contracts amid a record decline in oil prices.

In recent weeks, Wipro has seen a drop in IT contracts linked to large capital projects in the energy sector, chief executive officer T.K. Kurien said in an interview on Tuesday at the World Economic Forum, in Davos, Switzerland. While Kurien didn’t identify the projects on hold, he said they were mostly those that hadn’t yet broken ground.

Nasa has released a 1.5 billion-pixel image of the Andromeda Galaxy (or M31 as Nasa scientists call it) which was captured by Nasa/ESA Hubble Space Telescope and is actually made up of 411 images. To look at the whole image, one needs to have a 600 HD television screen. It shows over 100 million stars, also travels more than 40,000 light years.

It is the largest and sharpest image ever taken of the galaxy which requires 4.3 GB of disc space. Andromeda is nearest galactic neighbour which is over 2 million light-years away from earth, according to The Hubble Space Telescope that is a project of international cooperation between NASA and the European Space Agency.

The BSE Sensex breached the 28,900-mark and the NSE Nifty touched a new peak of 8,730.45 in early trade on Wednesday on sustained fund inflows, driven by the encouraging corporate earnings coupled with pre-budget optimism among participants.

Rising for the fifth straight day, the 30-share index rose by 155.25 points, or 0.53 per cent, to hit a new peak of 28,939.92.

HONG KONG: Reliance Industries has announced an offering of 10-year 144A/Reg S bonds to yield around 265bp over US Treasuries.

The fixed rate senior unsecured US dollar benchmark bonds are expected to be rated on par with the issuer at Baa2 from Moody's and BBB+ from Standard & Poor's.

The Delhi High Court on Wednesday issued notice to the producers and directors of Aamir Khan starrer 'PK' on a novelist's plea accusing the makers of the movie of plagiarising certain portions from his Hindi book 'Farishta' published in 2013.

Justice Najmi Waziri asked Vidhu Vinod Chopra and Raj Kumar Hirani, who directed the film, their respective production companies and scriptwriter Abhijat Joshi to appear before joint registrar of the high court on April 16 for recording of evidence in this regard.

The capital markets regulator, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi), is to have a meeting of its board of directors on Thursday.

On agenda in streamlining the rules for raising foreign capital through issue of partly-paid shares, besides decisions on the regulator;s annual Budget.

Kotak Mahindra Bank said on Tuesday that its consolidated profit after tax for the October-December 2014 quarter increased 21 per cent year-on-year to Rs 717 crore, on the back of growth in earnings of its banking, securities and investments businesses.

On a consolidated basis, the bank's advances grew 21 per cent to Rs 86,058 crore. Consolidated net interest margin was at 4.7 per cent during the quarter under review, down from 4.9 per cent in the year-ago period.

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