Commercial vehicle maker Ashok Leyland, the flagship company of the Hinduja Group, has raised Rs.210 crore from sale of one of its residential properties at Chennai. The sale was done as part of its strategy to sell non-core assets. While the company did not disclose the details of the properties sold, industry sources said that this was a 1-acre property in the posh Boat Club area, one of the most expensive residential localities in Chennai.

Against the backdrop of delays in several of its major projects, Prime Minister Narendra Modi today told DRDO to speed up and complete its programmes in time as the world will not wait for it.

Urging the country's only defence research agency to give more opportunities to the youth, the Prime Minister suggested that DRDO should take initiatives in projects which would help in easing the lives of the armed forces personnel.

In a pecking order that would confound many, HDFC Bank, India’s second largest private sector lender, has emerged as India’s top brand with a value of $9.4 billion, more than a tenth of the combined worth of the 50 top Indian brands of $70 billion. In a ranking in which only one Tata brand found its way into the top 50, and that too somewhere near the bottom of the heap — Tata Motors came in at 31 — marketing and brand consultancy Millward Brown and WPP Group, the world’s largest communications services group led by veteran advertising professional Martin Sorrell, has compiled the first ever BrandZ Top 50 Most Valuable Indian Brands.

Continuing with its dream run, the BSE Sensex on Tuesday rose for the sixth consecutive trading session to close at a new high of 26,420.7. On aggregate, the benchmark index at the BSE has gained 1,091 points or 4.3 per cent over the last six trading sessions. The mid-cap and small-cap indices have lagged the premier index as they rose by 3.4 per cent and 3.5 per cent, respectively. Sectors such as auto, oil & gas, healthcare and banking contributed significantly to the rise as the four sectoral indices rose by over 5 per cent in the six trading sessions Reasons for Surge.

Even as Tata Motors is looking to reinvent itself by launching some new models starting with compact sedan Zest and followed by two models every year till 2020, it would continue to retain its earlier passenger car models like Indica and Indigo, pinning hopes that early signs of an economic revival could revive sales in this category.

"There is no immediate plan to phase out either Indica or Indigo. In the passenger segment, we were a bit under-represented and Zest would start to address that category. But our other brands are very strong in the categories they are in. With economy turning around brands like Indigo and Indica would start growing and it is already happening.

Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (Irda) has allowed insurance companies to invest in onshore rupee bonds issued by Asian Development Bank (ADB) and International Finance Corporation (IFC), an arm of the World Bank.

IFC had sent a representation to Irda to permit insurers to invest in onshore rupee bonds to be issued by it. IFC proposes to raise $5 billion in the next 10 years through rupee bonds and the proceeds would be used to fund IFC’s projects in India that require rupee financing.

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) and the Union finance ministry are having discussion over the stricter corporate governance code prescribed by the former for listed companies.

The talks are on whether there is a need to have a different corporate governance code for listed companies than what is prescribed in the new Companies Act, said sources.

ICICI Bank, the country’s largest private sector lender, has introduced an equated monthly instalment (EMI) option for its customers on debit card purchases.

The EMI option, which was so far limited to credit card holders, will now allow even debit card holders to convert their high-value transactions into equated monthly instalments.

Tata Consultancy Services (TCS)'s British business process outsourcing subsidiary, Diligenta, on Tuesday announced a new multi-million pound and a multi-year contract with UK-based Friends Life Management Services for its international operations.

In a notification to the stock exchange, the country’s leading information technology services, consulting and business solutions company said Diligenta would configure and implement TCS BaNCS, a globally acclaimed core platform, to support the international operations of Friends Life—Friends Provident International.

NTPC’s largest power plant at Vindhyachal in Madhya Pradesh with a capacity of 4,260 Mw is facing shut-down due to paucity of coal supply from Northern Coalfields. The company said it would stop operations if fuel shortage continues.

Since early this month, two units of 210 Mw and 500 Mw have not been operating due to unavailability of contracted coal quantity. The rest of the 2,860 Mw is running at half the capacity.

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