The Income Tax Department has issued as much as Rs 1.57 trillion of income tax refunds in the first eight-and-a-half-months of the current fiscal compared to Rs 1.23 trillion in full 2018-19 fiscal, Revenue Secretary Ajay Bhushan Pandey said Friday.

At a press conference called to disclose impact of steps taken to boost consumption in the economy so as to uplift growth from a six-year low, Pandey said tax refund cases have gone up by 17 per cent to 2.16 crore.

In a historic move, the Andhra Pradesh legislative assembly on Friday passed AP Disha Act 2019 to protect women and children in sexual offences cases by providing speedy investigation and justice to victims.

Chief Minister YS Jaganmohan Reddy said the Nirbhaya case and the recent Disha case have compelled the need for AP Disha Act which has many salient features.

Tamil Nadu has overtaken Karnataka to become India's top renewable power generating state in FY20 (till October).

Of the total renewable power generation in the country, nearly 17.2 per cent was from Tamil Nadu. According to Central Electricity Authority (CEA) data in 2019-20 (upto October) 85,774.92 million units (MU) of power was generated through renewable energy, of which 14,771.69 MU was generated by Tamil Nadu followed by Karnataka (14,730.08 MU), Gujarat (10,505.54), Andhra Pradesh (9,638.70), Maharashtra (8,942.55) and Telangana (3794.99 ).

India's market for initial public offerings is expected to gather pace in 2020 after this year's relatively small crop saw strong gains in the stock market.

The 14 mainboard IPOs this year have risen by an average of more than 50% since listing, data compiled by Bloomberg show.

Shares of Housing Development Finance Corporation (HDFC) hit an all-time high of Rs 2,363, up 2 per cent on the BSE on Friday after the company completed the acquisition of HDFC Credila Financial Services. The stock surpassed has its previous high of Rs 2,357 hit on July 18, 2019.

"The Corporation has completed acquisition of 11.47 million equity shares, representing 9.12 per cent of total equity of HDFC Credila for a total consideration of Rs 395 crore, from its promoter Ajay Bohora and Anil Bohora," HDFC said in a regulatory filing.