Kolkata-based United Bank of India (UBI) has slapped a wilful defaulter's notice on Vijay Mallya, chairman of grounded Kingfisher Airlines, and other board members after the company defaulted. It gave the company 15 days to respond.

A email query to Kingfisher on the issue did not elicit any response. The airline has been grounded since October 2012.

The Centre is planning to extend an olive branch to the states to end the stalemate on Goods and Services Tax (GST). Finance Minister Arun Jaitely will separately reach out to Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat to address their concerns on fiscal autonomy and revenue loss.

To win back confidence of the states, the finance ministry might also make provisions in the upcoming Budget for adequately compensating the states for the losses they made due to reduction in Central Sales Tax (CST) — a tax on inter-state movement of goods.

Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan plans to regulate the sale of tobacco. He said he would soon propose higher taxes on tobacco products to discourage consumption, ahead of World No Tobacco Day, on May 31. The move comes in the wake of increasing disease burden due to the use of tobacco products.

The new civil aviation minister, P Ashok Gajapathi Raju, said he would not take any hasty decision on privatisation of Air India. In his first address to the media after assuming office on Thursday, he said, “There are private airlines and there is a public sector company. The public sector does have a place and a lot of countries have public sector companies. As of now, we are trying to formulate our views.”

Infosys board member and president, B G Srinivas, who recently resigned from the company, will be joining PCCW Limited, which is the holding company of Hong Kong-based information and communications technology firm HKT Group Holdings Limited. Srinivas will be appointed as PCCW's group managing director and executive director, with effect from July 14. His resignation at Infosys would be effective June 10.

Maruti Suzuki India’s (MSIL’s) proposed factory in Gujarat is faced with a technical hurdle.

In the process of reworking the state support agreement (SSA), thanks to the new scheme proposed by MSIL, the state government is learnt to have objected to offering value added tax (VAT)-related concessions twice, once to the manufacturer and then again to the seller. MSIL has been asked to suggest a new formula.

At a meeting with West Bengal Labour Minister Purnendu Bose, the Hindustan Motors management on Thursday agreed to pay a part of the dues to workers by Monday. However, it didn’t provide an assurance on reopening the Uttarpara plant.

The company said it needed time to restructure the organisation and significantly reduce its liabilities. “The Hindustan Motors management has said due to huge losses incurred by the company, it was forced to shut the plant…However, they have said they have the intention to reopen the plant. We will continue our talks with the management to ensure reopening of the plant,” Bose told Business Standard.

Mukesh Ambani-controlled Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) is acquiring a majority stake in Raghav Bahl’s Network18 Media and Investments and its subsidiary TV18 Broadcast through Independent Media Trust (IMT), of which RIL is a sole beneficiary.

Network18 Media and TV18 control a suite of broadcasting channels like CNBC-TV18, Viacom18 and CNN-IBN, besides a bevy of e-commerce businesses and digital internet sites.

Experts believe Infosys might stick to an internal candidate despite the exit of its president and board member, B G Srinivas, widely seen as the strongest contender to become the Bangalore-based information technology company's next chief executive officer (CEO).Srinivas is joining Hong Kong-based PWWC, the holding company of information & communication technology firm HKT Group, as managing director.

New Delhi: Inspectors from Anil Ambani’s electricity retailer BSES Rajdhani Power Ltd entered a village near New Delhi last week hunting for tampered meters. Residents responded by beating them with iron rods.

The team was also stoned in the 21 May incident, a police report shows. Inspectors who visited another village in 2012 were bound and urinated on, according to two company officials who asked not to be identified as the information isn’t public.

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