Moneycontrol Selects: Top stories this evening

A round-up of the big stories (Representative image)

Here is a collection of the most important stories this evening:

Adani promoters prepay $1.1 billion to release pledged shares

Promoters of Adani group companies have repaid $1.114 billion before time to release some pledged shares in Adani Ports & Special Economic Zone, Adani Green Energy and Adani Transmission. The conglomerate said that this has been done "in light of recent market volatility and in continuation of the promoters’ commitment to reduce the overall promoter leverage backed by Adani listed company shares".

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Turkey, Syria's biggest earthquake leaves over 1,300 dead

More than 1,300 people have died in a powerful earthquake that hit Turkey and Syria on February 6. Turkey's death toll stands at 912, while in war-ravaged Syria, 560 people have died. Rescuers are continuing their search for survivors after the 7.8-magnitude earthquake.

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CEA Nageswaran defends Budget, says reforms can now only be incremental

Chief Economic Adviser V Anantha Nageswaran has defended the 2023-24 Budget for not containing big reforms, saying any further reforms can only be incremental. "The bulk of product market, external sector, and financial sector reforms have been done in the previous 20-30 years. And therefore whatever that needs to happen is by definition incremental in nature and many of them do lie in the realm of states as well," Nageswaran said on February 6.

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Aswath Damodaran dissects Adani crisis: What's the fair value of this 'competent' infra play?

Valuation guru Aswath Damodaran believes that Adani Group, despite all its flaws, remains competent in India's infrastructure space that's full of incompetent players. He pegs the fair value for Adani Enterprises at Rs 947.

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Akums gets DCGI nod to launch new antidiabetic drug

Haridwar-based Akums Drugs and Pharmaceutical Limited on February 6 announced the launch of a novel antidiabetic drug for poor insulin resistance in type-2 diabetes. The company said its antidiabetic drug Lobeglitazone has been approved by the Drugs Controller General of India.

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WhatsApp Business to get more expensive. Will it lead to less spam?

WhatsApp is overhauling how it charges businesses with new conversation categories and changes to its free tier from June 1, 2023, as parent company Meta looks to accelerate monetisation from the messaging app.

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Adani Transmission Q3 profit jumps 78% on healthy operating margin, stock down 10%

Adani Transmission on February 6 reported a massive 78 percent year-on-year growth in consolidated profit at Rs 474.72 crore for the quarter ended December FY23, but the stock remained in the lower circuit. The Adani Transmission stock was locked in 10 percent lower circuit for the third consecutive session on Monday, falling 54 percent in the last 10 trading sessions, especially after US-based short seller Hindenburg Research accused the Adani Group of stock manipulation and accounting fraud.

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Google reportedly invests $400 million in AI startup Anthropic

Google has invested nearly $400 million in artificial intelligence start-up Anthropic AI, reported Bloomberg. While both Anthropic and Google did not comment on the investment, they announced a partnership that will see the AI start-up use Google's cloud computing services.

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