Business News Live: Reliance aims to double retail business in next 3-4 years

India's aviation watchdog has issued a show cause notice to Akasa Airlines over several regulatory breaches identified during a recent review, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) said in a statement on Thursday. Akasa Air, which started flying international in March, was found to be non-compliant with civil aviation regulations and Rule 140C of The Aircraft Rules 1937, which mandate scheduled air transport services to carry a route guide.
 

Indian tablet PC market, including detachable and slates, more than doubled year-on-year to 1.84 million units in the second quarter of 2024, market research firm International Data Corporation said in a report. Samsung led the market with 48.7 per cent market share. It was followed by Acer with a 23.6 per cent share, Apple with 9.5 per cent, Lenovo with 6.9 per cent and Xiaomi with 4.7 per cent.

InterGlobe Aviation promoter Rakesh Gangwal's family trust on Thursday sold a 5.24 per cent stake in the airline for Rs 9,549 crore through open market transactions. The share sale is part of Gangwal's decision in February 2022 to trim his shareholding after a bitter feud with co-founder Rahul Bhatia over alleged corporate governance issues.
 

Markets regulator Sebi on Thursday proposed to make it mandatory for all entities regulated by it to maintain communication records, including acknowledgements, for at least eight years. The move is aimed at improving regulatory compliance, increase transparency, protect investors' interest and boost their confidence in the securities market. 
 

State-owned Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) on Thursday handed over a dividend cheque of Rs 3,662.17 crore to Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman.

The cheque was presented by Siddhartha Mohanty, Chief Executive Officer & Managing Director of LIC to the finance minister in the presence of M P Tangirala, Additional Secretary, Ministry of Finance.
 

The construction of the Noida International Airport in Jewar is moving at a fast pace and the project is likely to be operational in April next year. As per a statement, Noida International Airport (NIA) is in tune with its development milestones, with validation flights to test flight procedures as well as filing of its aerodrome license application expected by December 2024. 

State-owned NBCC (India) Ltd on Thursday said it has completed the sale of commercial properties worth around Rs 14,800 crore in the national capital on behalf of the government. In a regulatory filing, the company said it has completely sold office space inventory at World Trade Center (WTC) project in Nauroji Nagar. It has also sold 100 per cent retail and commercial space at Downtown Sarojini Nagar.
 

Infosys on Thursday said it has expanded its partnership with American chipmaker NVIDIA to develop GenAI-powered solutions for telecom operators. The IT major has developed three generative AI solutions powered by its AI-offering Topaz, which make use of NVIDIA NIM inference microservices, NVIDIA NeMo Retriever embedding models, and NeMo Guardrails to customise and deploy generative AI telco domain-specific large-language models.

Gold prices slipped Rs 100 to Rs 74,250 per 10 grams in the national capital on Thursday, according to the All India Sarafa Association.

The precious metal had ended at Rs 74,350 per 10 grams in the previous trade.

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Tyre exports from India grew 17 per cent year-on-year to reach Rs 6,219 crore in the first quarter of the current fiscal with the US emerging as the biggest market, industry body Automotive Tyre Manufacturers Association (ATMA) said on Thursday. Tyre exports from India recouped in the first quarter of FY25, increasing by 17 per cent YoY. Tyre exports had declined by 14 per cent in the corresponding quarter in the previous year, ATMA said citing data just released by the Ministry of Commerce. Sustained focus on R&D and development of advanced technology products aided by competitive pricing and branding efforts helped Indian tyre manufacturers drive growth in exports despite a challenging environment, ATMA Chairman Arnab Banerjee said in a statement.
 

Sebi chief Madhabi Puri Buch on Thursday said there has been a positive response to small and medium REITs (real estate investment trusts) and industry players came forward for regulations on such entities. Recently, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) implemented regulations for small and medium real estate investment trusts (SM REITs) aimed at significantly increasing investor interest in fractional ownership of real estate assets. Speaking at the Global Fintech Fest 2024, Buch spoke about compliances and the role of the regulator and said that industry players came forward for regulations on small and medium REITs.
 

Hyundai Motor, long the most successful foreign automaker on Indian roads, is hoping to regain market share from increasingly formidable domestic rivals by launching a series of new SUVs as it gears up for a $3 billion public listing in the country. The SUV rollout will begin with its first India-made electric vehicle early next year and the launch of at least two gasoline-powered models tailored for the market starting in 2026, said three sources with knowledge of the company's plans.

Shares of fintech firm One97 Communications, the owner of Paytm brand, jumped 5 per cent on Thursday morning after the company received the government's approval for downstream investment in wholly-owned subsidiary Paytm Payments Services Ltd. The stock climbed 5 per cent to Rs 565 on the BSE. At the NSE, it surged 4.98 per cent to Rs 564.80. The company will reapply for a payment aggregator (PA) licence, a regulatory filing said on Wednesday.

Britain's car production fell for the fifth consecutive month in July, hurt by manufacturers shifting to new models and temporary disruptions in the supply chain, industry data showed on Thursday. A total of 65,478 cars rolled off production in July, down 14.4 per cent from a year earlier, the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) said.

Biocon Biologics on Thursday said it has inked a pact with Janssen for launching a biosimilar medication for the treatment of autoimmune diseases in Europe, the United Kingdom, Canada, and Japan. The company, a subsidiary of Biocon Ltd, has inked a settlement and licence agreement with Janssen Biotech Inc, Janssen Sciences Ireland, and Johnson & Johnson. This agreement clears the way to commercialise its Bmab 1200, a proposed biosimilar to Stelara. As per the terms of the settlement agreement, Biocon Biologics has resolved patent disputes with Janssen to secure market entry dates in Europe, the UK, Canada, and Japan, the company said in a statement.
 

Japan's Nikkei share average slipped on Thursday, as technology stocks fell after artificial intelligence (AI) darling Nvidia's forecasts failed to impress some growth-hungry investors.

The Nikkei .N225 was down 0.39% at 38,220.34 by the midday recess after falling as much as 1.12% earlier in the day.

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Benchmark indices opened slightly lower on Thursday as investors booked profit after recent record highs in multi-sectors. At 9:23 a.m. IST, the NSE Nifty 50 index was 0.1 per cent down, trading at 25,029, and the S&P BSE Sensex also fell by 0.1 per cent to 81,710.5.

The Nifty 50 index had scaled an all-time high on Wednesday, but did not see further upsides as profit-booking in multiple sectors including information technology or IT chopped off the gains. The IT index that had gained 3.2 per cent over the past three sessions fell 0.4 per cent today after earlier scaling a fresh record high this week.

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The Delhi High Court on Wednesday voiced deep concern over the growing menace created by deepfake technology and called upon the Union Government to act without further delay. It said that the only antidote to counter the menace caused by fake artificial intelligence would be superior technology itself.

A Division Bench headed by Acting Chief Justice Manmohan and Justice Tushar Rao Gedela was hearing two petitions over non-regulation of deepfake technology, filed by a senior journalist and an advocate. To begin with, the counsel appearing for one of the petitioners told the court that the Union Government had claimed that the existing Information Technology Act and the Data Protection Act were adequate to deal with the challenges thrown up by the deepfake technology.

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Indian government bond yields are expected to open largely unchanged on Thursday as traders await key data points, as well as debt supply on Friday, for further directional cues.

The benchmark 10-year yield IN071034G=CC is likely to move between 6.85% and 6.88%, compared with its previous close of 6.8605%, a trader with a primary dealership said.

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The dollar steadied on Thursday as it nursed some of its steep losses from previous sessions, with traders looking ahead to a key US inflation reading at the end of the week that could offer further clues on the outlook for rates there.

Friday's release of the core personal consumption expenditures (PCE) price index - the Federal Reserve's preferred measure of inflation - headlines a week that's otherwise been lacking on major market moving data, leaving currencies mostly rangebound.

Nations building artificial intelligence models in their own languages are turning to Nvidia's NVDA.O chips, adding to already booming demand as generative AI takes center stage for businesses and governments, a senior executive said on Wednesday.

Nvidia's third-quarter forecast for rising sales of its chips that power AI technology such as OpenAI's ChatGPT failed to meet investors' towering expectations. But the company described new customers coming from around the world, including governments that are now seeking their own AI models and the hardware to support them.

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Nvidia’s latest quarterly forecast, revealed on Wednesday, did not meet the lofty expectations set by investors who have driven its stock to dizzying heights amid substantial bets on the future of generative AI.

The company’s shares dropped 6 per cent in after-hours trading, dragging down the stocks of other chipmakers such as Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) and Broadcom (AVGO), as well as major tech players. The results have been seen as a moment of reckoning for the tech sector, with mixed reactions despite impressive growth and profitability.

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