(ET) In what is being touted as the largest strategic investment for a minority stake by a technology company anywhere in the world, social media giant Facebook has agreed to invest $5.7 billion or Rs 43,574 crore for a 9.99% stake in Mumbai-based Jio Platforms, a unit of Reliance Industries (RIL). Between Jio’s last reported subscriber base of 388 million and the 700 million-plus Indian users on the three FB platforms – Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram – their combined reach will be well over a billion, albeit with considerable overlap. The transaction gives Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook CEO and the world’s seventh richest man…
Author: Aruna Sharma
(ET) The number of coronavirus infected people continued to rise in India, with the latest Union Health ministry update putting the number near 20,000 as of the morning hours on April 22. At 8 am today, the number of cases stood at 19,984. As many as 640 have died. 3,869 have been declared cured/discharged. According to ICMR’s last update, a total of 4,47,812 individuals had been tested as of 9 pm yesterday. With 251 deaths, Maharashtra continued to lead the fatalities list by far. Other sates with high casualties include Gujarat (90), Madhya Pradesh (76) and Delhi (47).
(PTI) Indian Oil Corp and Bharat Petroleum Corp Ltd are among the state-owned oil PSUs which on Tuesday resumed work on select projects after the government allowed partial relaxation in the nationwide lockdown. In separate statements, Indian Oil Corp (IOC) and BPCL said they have resumed stalled activities on projects while maintaining strict cronovirus-related health and safety hygiene. State-owned oil firms have decided to resume as many as 511 projects involving over Rs 42,000 crore of investment with immediate effect. These projects are either in rural areas or have in situ labour for the resumption of work. The government had last…
(PTI) Daimler India Commercial Vehicles, a 100 per cent subsidiary of Stuttgart-based Daimler, on Tuesday said it has tied up with oil major Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd to support stranded drivers engaged in transporting essential goods. The company said it also extended two-month extension of vehicle warranty for all its BharatBenz truck and bus customers. “Even during the lock-down some of our BharatBenz customers are transporting essential commodities. To support them in turn, we decided to extend both service and warranty repairs by two months,” DICV, Managing Director, Satyakam Arya said. Arya who is also the DICV’s CEO said, the company has tied up with HPCL to support stranded drivers.
(PTI) State-run steel maker RINL has shut down two blast furnaces at its Visakhapatnam plant, as a result of which the daily production level has come down to 6,000 tonnes, a source said. After shutting down the first blast furnace last month, the company has shut down the second blast furnaces also last week reducing its production further to 6,000 tonnes, a source said. There is a lack of demand in the market and given the scenario its is imperative to scale down the production, the source said. RINL, which has an installed capacity of over 7.5 million tonnes per…
(PTI) After constantly rising for the past several months, the volume, as well as value, of transactions through UPI payment system dropped in March due to the 21-day nationwide lockdown imposed to combat the coronavirus infection. Unified Payments Interface (UPI) is an instant payment system developed by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), an RBI regulated entity. UPI is built over the IMPS infrastructure and allows one to instantly transfer money to any bank account. According to the data, the volume of UPI transactions in March slipped to 124.68 crore from 132.57 crore in February.
(AU) देश में लगातार कोरोना वायरस संक्रमितों की संख्या बढ़ती जा रही है। ऐसे में इसने राष्ट्रपति भवन में भी दस्तक दे दी है। राष्ट्रपति भवन परिसर में अपने परिवार के साथ रहने वाली एक महिला कोरोना पॉजिटिव मिली है। जिसके बाद स्वास्थ्य मंत्रालय के आवश्यक दिशा-निर्देशों के मुताबिक 125 परिवारों को एकांतवास में रहने की सलाह दी गई है। चिंता की बात यह है कि महिला का पति राष्ट्रपति भवन में काम करने वाले अंडर सेक्रेट्री स्तर के आईएएस अधिकारी के दफ्तर में काम करता था। इसे देखते हुए एहतियातन अधिकारी ने खुद को क्वारंटाइन (एकांतवास) कर लिया है।…
(PTI) More than 200 fresh cases of coronavirus were detected in Gujarat, taking the tally to 1,939 on Monday, while the death toll rose to 71 after eight more patients succumbed to the infection, a state health department official said. Out of the 201 new cases detected in the last 24 hours, Ahmedabad alone accounted for 152, followed by Surat at 27 and Vadodara at eight, the official said. The total number of COVID-19 cases in Ahmedabad district rose to 1,248, of which 1,173 are from the city, the official said. A majority of the cases in Ahmedabad city has come from…
(PTI) Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath’s father Anand Bisht died on Monday morning, an official said. “Honourable CM’s father left for his heavenly abode at 10.44 am. Our deepest condolences,” Additional Chief Secretary (Home) Awanish Awasthi said in a statement.
(ET) In an indication India remains a market of choice for renewable energy investors amid the global covid-19 led slowdown, Avaada Energy has bagged a 2,000 Megawatt solar power project auctioned by hydro power major NHPC Ltd. Other winners in the auction conducted through e-reverse bidding included SoftBank, Axis Energy Ventures (Brookfield promoted), O2 Power (Temasek promoted) and EDEN Renewables. “The bidding was aggressive and low market demand was trying to drive the price down. Our bid was competitive, and we are happy that we won against some tough competition,” said Vineet Mittal, Chairman, Avaada Energy. He expressed hope India would continue its exponential growth in renewable energy sector on the…