PM Modi says traders positive about GST, just need 'handholding'

22:10 Audi will build electric vehicles at its plants across the world, including sites in Mexico and Hungary, the premium carmaker said on Wednesday, detailing its zero-emission plans.

22:07 Bank of Canada Governor Stephen Poloz, in his first speech since his second rate increase, cautioned there is no “predetermined path for interest rates” and said the central bank will proceed “cautiously” as it assesses the performance of the economy, Bloomberg reported.

22:06 China's cabinet said on Wednesday that it will take a number of measures, including tax exemptions and targeted reserve requirement ratio cuts, to encourage banks to support small businesses.

21:17 The Madras High Court has directed K F Wilfred, principal secretary of the Election Commission, to appear on October 6 with all necessary documents in connection with the attestation of Jayalalithaa's thumb impression on documents relating to a bypoll last year.

21:14 Former Union Home Minister P Chidambaram had moved a note for the Cabinet Committee on Security, proposing dialogue with the people of Jammu and Kashmir with the starting point being the Instrument of

Accession, according to Congress leader Mani Shankar Aiyar.

21:13 An overwhelming 92% of Kurds voted in favor of independence from Iraq, the Kurdish electoral commission said Wednesday, in a landmark referendum that has provoked backlash from the landlocked region’s neighbors and the central government in Baghdad, Wall Street Journal reported.

21:08 Volkswagen AG’s tarnished reputation suffered another blow after its Scania unit was slapped with a 880.5 million euro ($1.03 billion) fine for fixing truck prices, a year after other members of the cartel reached a record settlement with the European Union, Bloomberg reported.

20:56 US Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said he pressed China during his visit to Beijing this week to level a “lopsided” playing field for American companies there.

20:51 Baghdad piled pressure on Iraq’s Kurds on Wednesday, demanding they cancel their vote for independence while parliament urged the Iraqi central government to send troops to take control of vital oil fields held by Kurdish forces.

20:47 The UN has drawn up a contingency plan to feed up to 700,000 Muslim Rohingya refugees from Myanmar after some 480,000 fled to Bangladesh over the past month and arrivals continue.

A senior official from the UN's World Food Program (WFP) told AFP they were now prepared to provide massive food and other emergency aid if the influx continues in coming weeks.

20:40 British Prime Minister Theresa May said Wednesday she was “bitterly disappointed” by a US decision to place punitive import duties on a new jetliner made by Canada’s Bombardier Inc., putting thousands of jobs at a Northern Ireland factory at risk and as her defence secretary said that the ruling could jeopardise Boeing Co. contracts with UK.

The US Commerce Department today slapped duties of nearly 220 per cent on Canada's Bombardier C Series aircraft.

20:25 Wolfgang Schäuble, one of the most powerful policy makers in the euro currency zone, is set to step down as Germany’s finance minister in the wake of the country’s election, the Wall Street Journal reported.

20:06 President Vladimir Putin said that Russia planned later today to destroy its last chemical weapons and accused the United States of not following suit, AFP reported.

"Today the last chemical ammunition from Russian chemical weapons stockpiles will be destroyed," Putin said, quoted by Russian news agencies.

The United States "unfortunately is not carrying out its obligations when it comes to the timeframe of destroying chemical weapons," he added.

19:44 Nearly 25 years after ONGC's prime discovered oilfields were privatised, the government is planning to allow private firms to take majority stake in the state-owned firm's producing oil and gas fields such as Mumbai High.

The Oil Ministry plans to approach the Cabinet soon for allowing private firms to take participating interest (PI) in a nomination block, sources privy to the development said.

19:34 Regulator SEBI today barred Jeevan Suraksha Energy and Industries Ltd (JSEIL) from the capital markets for not complying with public issue norms.

The move comes after SEBI received a complaint against the company with regard to alleged fund mobilisation by way of issuance of Redeemable Preference Shares (RPS) and inability to recover investments and promised returns.

18:40 Prime Minister Narendra Modi today said traders across the country are "positive" about GST and accepting the new taxation arrangement but they need "handholding" so that their problems can be resolved.

He urged the chief secretaries to use the district administration in this regard, so that small traders are facilitated to access and adopt the new system, according to a PMO statement.

18:29 The ED has summoned former Bihar deputy chief minister Tejashwi Yadav and his mother Rabri Devi in connection with its money laundering probe in a railway hotels allotment corruption case dating back to the UPA rule, officials said today.

18:09 State-owned IDBI Bank today said it has sold 9 percent stake in Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI) for an undisclosed amount in a bid to mobilise funds by exiting non-core business.

18:03 Over 180 people on a Delhi-bound SpiceJet flight were among those who had a narrow escape at Kabul airport on Wednesday morning when the airport came under a rocket attack, Times of India reported.

The aircraft -- a Boeing 737 -- was being prepared for a flight to Delhi when the attack happened and all those aboard the aircraft had to be rushed to a safer place.

"The boarding for SpiceJet flight SG 22 (Kabul-Delhi) was almost complete when the incident took place. Passengers and crew were safely deboarded and taken to the terminal building. There was no damage to the aircraft," a SpiceJet spokesperson told TOI.

17:55 Air India has tied up with public sector lender Punjab National Bank and private lender IndusInd Bank to secure loans to the tune of over Rs 3,000 crore for meeting working capital requirements.

The airline expects the two banks to disburse the amount by next week, a source close to the development said.

17:20 Home Minister Rajnath Singh today downplayed senior BJP leader Yashwant Sinha's criticism of the Centre, saying India economy is the fastest growing in the world and the country's credibility has been established in the international arena.

17:19 US Defence Secretary Jim Mattis and NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg renewed their commitment to Afghanistan today, as the Taliban launched a rocket attack that wounded five civilians in Kabul.

As I travel around the country, what I hear is "Achhe din to aaye nahi, ye bure din kab jaayenge?": Former finance minister P Chidambaram pic.twitter.com/5XeykcA9C1

— ANI (@ANI) September 27, 2017

16:47 Govinda Rao said that reviving the economy should be done by increasing private investment.

16:46 Former PMEAC member Govinda Rao said that glitches with the GSTN and the GST process has caused a working capital crunch among exporters.

16:45 Aviation minister Jayant Sinha and airline officials are meeting finance minister Arun Jaitley to discuss the GST issue, CNBC TV18 reported.

16:41 Govinda Rao said that the current slowdown in the economy is not a one-quarter problem and that it will spill into the next quarter too.

16:38 Former PM Economic Advisory Council member Govinda Rao has said that the implementation of GST has created many problems for exporters.

He also said that the government should have conducted many more dry runs before actually rolling out GST.

16:25 Chidamabaram said that all economic indicators point towards the fact that growth will be below 6 percent in the July-September quarter.

The former finance minister was speaking at a press conference called by Congress today after BJP leader and former finance minister Yashwant Sinha published a column in the Indian Express, hitting out at Arun Jaitley and the Modi government for failing the economy. Read the full column here.

16:24 BJP MP Subramanian Swamy has said that he did not believe demonetisation to be an unmitigated disaster.

Swamy, however, did say that GST should not have been implemented in a hurry and reiterated that its behind schedule.

16:21 Chidamabaram said that the government's claim of India being the fastest growing economy for the last four quarters is false and that the bluff has finally been called.

16:15 Former finance minister P Chidambaram has said that he is opposed to the government's decision to relax the fiscal deficit target for FY18.

Chidambaram said that if the fiscal deficit target is relaxed, it means that the government's revenues are under pressure.

16:12 The Reserve Bank of India will hold policy steady at its October 4 meeting, and well past next year, amid weak economic growth and signs inflation may soon overshoot its target, a Reuters poll found.

#BREAKING | Extortion Case: Dawood Ibrahim's brother Iqbal Kaskar and two other accused sent to 4 days police custody by Thane Court. (ANI) pic.twitter.com/Pr7Nfb4hRn — New Indian Express (@NewIndianXpress) September 27, 2017

16:04 The Madras High Court today directed the Tamil Nadu government not to force school children to attend the state-sponsored birth centenary

functions of ruling AIADMK founder late MG Ramachandran.

15:23 Bharti Airtel will invest up to Rs 20,000 crore this year in digital infrastructure, the company’s chairman Sunil Bharti Mittal said on Wednesday.

15:18 Not satisfied with No 3 slot, Dabur and its Chief Executive Officer Sunil Duggal is busy with the larger objective of rebuilding the company’s topline. In an exclusive interview to Moneycontrol, he says that in the next one or two years Dabur will take the No 2 slot in oral care after Colgate.

15:15 Piramal Housing Finance, a wholly-owned housing finance subsidiary of Piramal Finance, is targeting a loan book of Rs 15,000 crore by 2020. The housing finance unit set up on September 4 has assets under management (AUM) of over Rs 200 crore at present. Piramal Finance has infused equity capital of Rs 1,000 crore in the subsidiary. Currently, it has an operational branch in Goregaon, a suburb of Mumbai, and plans to open a branch in Thane soon.

15:11 Sources told CNBC-TV18 that the government will make fresh efforts to address concerns raised by traders regarding the Goods & Services Tax. It will hold special sessions with traders across India. The government is concerned about a drop in GST filings for August.

15:08 State-run Power Finance Corporation (PFC) has committed financial assistance of Rs 4,009 crore to Telangana for setting up a 4,000 MW thermal power plant in Nalgonda district, reports PTI. PFC has sanctioned a term loan of Rs 4,009 crore to TSGENCO (Telangana Power Generation Corporation) for setting up 5X800 MW, coal based Yadadri Thermal Power Plant using super-critical technology in Nalgonda district of Telangana, a PFC statement said.

Refusing to term it a surgical strike, the Indian Army said that unidentified insurgents of Nationalist Socialist Council of Nagaland-Khaplang (NSCN-K) had opened fire on a column of troops patrolling a thickly forested area along the Indo-Myanmar border, following which the army retaliated. Indian troops suffered no casualties in the attack, while at no time did India troops cross the international border, the Eastern Command of the Indian Army said.

14:50 The operation was carried out near Langkhu village on the international border against a camp of Nationalist Socialist Council of Nagaland-Khaplang (NSCN-K), reports CNN-News18.

14:43 India’s surgical strike against Pakistan took place in September 2015 during expiry week. In fact, it was on expiry day. Coincidentally, ICICI Prudential Life Insurance was listed on that day. Today, ICICI Lombard General Insurance Co was listed. In the previous surgical strike against Pakistan, the Sensex had fallen 465 points.

14:38 On June 4, 2015, NSCN-K ambushed an Indian Army convoy of 6 Dogra Regiment in Chandel district of Manipur and killed 18 Army jawans. In retaliation, on June 10, India conducted surgical strikes against terrorist camps along the Indo-Myanmar international border, inflicted significant casualties. Indian media had reported the casualty figure as high as 158.

14:34 Major General Gagandeep Bakshi, or GD Bakshi, told CNN-News18 that these surgical strikes are now going to be a routine matter. With an eye on Pakistan-based militants, he stated there will not be one-way traffic along the Line of Control.

14:29 Team of Para Commandoes raided Naga insurgents camp near Myanmar border at 4:45 am, reports CNN-News18. Preparations for the attack started at 3:30 am. About 70 commandoes took part in two raids. The Indian Army suffered no casualties in the operation.

14:26 Team of Para Commandoes raided Naga insurgents alongside Myanmar border, reports CNN-News18. The raid comes on the anniversary of the surgical strike on Pakistan last year. There are reports of heavy casualties to Naga insurgents.

14:21 The Indian Army has carried out another surgical strike alongside Myanmar border, reports CNN-News18.

13:57 Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi said he will waive off farmer debts if voted to power, reports The Indian Express. Gandhi who is campaigning in Gujarat said, “We forced Uttar Pradesh government to waive off farm loans. Congress governments in Karnataka and Punjab wrote off farmers debts. This trend of waiving off farmers debt will continue in Gujarat, if Congress is voted to power.”

13:48 More than 700 fresh foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) were registered with Sebi in the first four months of 2017-18, indicating that India remains an attractive destination, latest data from the regulator showed. This comes on top of close to 3,500 new FPIs registering with Sebi in the previous financial year. According to Sebi data, the number of FPIs with the regulator's approval rose to 8,511 at the end of July 2017, from 7,807 at March-end, an addition of 704.

13:41 Engineering, procurement and construction major KEC International said it has won new orders worth Rs 1,024 crore. The company bagged international orders worth Rs 610 crore for the transmission and distribution business, it said in a BSE filing. The cable business also won various orders worth Rs 245 crore. Railways, civil and solar businesses received orders worth Rs 82 crore, Rs 70 crore and Rs 17 crore, respectively, it said. KEC International, an RPG Group firm, is a global infrastructure EPC major. It has presence in power transmission and distribution, cables, railways, water, renewables and civil.

13:39 Larsen & Toubro (L&T) said its construction arm has won orders worth Rs 2,170 crore across business segments. L&T Construction has bagged orders worth Rs 2,170 crore across business segments, the company said in a BSE filing. L&T said its water and effluent treatment business has won an order worth Rs 1,547 crore while the power transmission and distribution business has bagged orders worth Rs 623 crore in the domestic and international market.

13:33 Europe’s main benchmarks climbed to a new 10-week high on Wednesday as deals remained front and center, while a weaker euro also supported indexes which had dipped this summer as the strong currency dented earnings expectations. The pan-European STOXX 600 gained 0.2% to hit its highest level since July 20, while euro zone stocks also rose 0.3%. UK’s FTSE gained 0.4%. Cyclical sectors led gains with basic resources stocks and banks driving higher. The euro hit a new five-week low against the dollar, supporting the region’s companies which rely on exports.

13:28 India’s economy will do well with extra fiscal stimulus and there will be no harm if New Delhi busts its fiscal deficit target to create space for higher capital spending, reports Reuters. The comments from Rajiv Kumar, deputy head of policy think-tank Niti Aayog, comes at a time when Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s administration is deliberating on measures to revive an economy, which recorded its slowest growth in three years in June quarter.

13:25 A group of cattle smugglers allegedly fired at two women, including a British national, who were attempting to free animals packed into a speeding tempo on the Gurugram -Alwar road, reports PTI. The incident took place around 2.30 am on Tuesday when Sonia Sharma, a British national, and her friend Archie Baranwal were driving their new SUV and noticed five to six cows in the tempo that was speeding, a police official said.

The tempo had no rear tyres and was running on its rims. "We found some boys sitting on its roof. We chased the vehicle to prevent the illegal cattle lifting. The person sitting next to the driver was abusing us," Sharma said. Seeing the plight of animals, the women called the police and asked the driver to stop. Smelling trouble, the assailants opened fire. Gurugram Police PRO Ravinder Kumar said a case had been registered in Sohna Police Station against four to five unidentified cattle smugglers following the complaint by the two women.

13:20 Cambridge Analytica, the international data mining and analysis company that spearheaded Donald Trump to the White House through a targeted communication campaign, is in talks with a large opposition party in India for the upcoming general elections in 2019, reports Moneycontrol’s Neha Alawadhi.

13:15 Mukesh Ambani, CMD, Reliance Industries, said the Indian economy will grow to USD 7 trillion per year in the next 10 years. “I believe the Indian economy will rank among the top three economies in 10 years.” Ambani was speaking at India Mobile Congress in New Delhi.

13:04 Google, Bharat Heavy Electricals and State Bank of India have been named as the top three best places to work in India by leading global job site Indeed, reports PTI. Indeed revealed the 50 best places to work in India for 2017, curated from the site's hundreds of thousands of company reviews from employees.

While Amazon grabbed the 4th place, Marriott International was ranked 5th, Intel (6th), American Express (7th), IBM (8th), Tata Consultancy Services (9th) and Hyatt (10th). Some of the other indigenous firms in the list include Tata Steel at the 17th place, Bharti Airtel (20th), Apollo Hospitals (22nd), Tata Motors (33rd), Bharat Electronics (37th), Asian Paints (45th), Tata Communications (46th) and Reliance Industries (47th).

12:59 Drug firm Zydus Cadila has received final approval from the US health regulator to market indomethacin extended release capsules used in treating painful and inflammatory conditions such as arthritis. The company has received approval from the US Food and Drug Administration (USFDA) to market the drug in the strength of 75 mg, it said in a BSE filing. It will manufacture the drug at the Moraiya facility in Ahmedabad.

12:52 Life was disrupted as torrential rains lashed Bengaluru since last night till early today, as also several other parts of the state, reports PTI. Areas such as Krishnarajapuram, Nelamangala, Koramangala and surrounding areas in the city received more than 180 mm rain. Krishnaraja Puram alone received 196 mm rain. Many trees were uprooted, lakes breached their banks, and houses were inundated as rains pounded the city.

12:42 For the first time in the US, a female marine became the first woman to complete the Corps’ rigorous training course for infantry officers. Even as many women serve in the Marines and other departments in the country’s armed forces, but the lady is the first to clear the Marine Corps’ 13-week infantry officer training course, said AFP.

12:41 Uber said it would stop service in Montreal and the Quebec province next month rather than accept new government rules, the second setback in a week for the ride-hailing service’s international operations, reports The New York Times. In Quebec, where Uber has sparked large protests by Montreal cabdrivers who argue that it has eroded their livelihoods by ignoring laws, the ride-hailing company has operated for a year under a special authorisation while it negotiated permanent rules with the government. Last week, Laurent Lessard, the provincial transport minister, announced conditions he was seeking in exchange for extending the program for another 12 months.

12:30 The government is cracking down against tobacco, especially on the free-ranging sale of tobacco, reports Mint. Now, the Ministry of Health has proposed that tobacco shops must register with the local civic authority. The new regulation also said they cannot sell products like candies and cold drinks which attract children and non-smokers to the shop.

12:23 In an appalling mistake, an amount of Rs 100 crore allocated for mid-day meal (MDM) in Jharkhand was wrongly deposited in the account of a construction company. According to an The Indian Express report, it allegedly was due to a lapse on the part of a State Bank of India official. The money remained in the wrong account between August 5 and September 19. According to the officials of the SBI, at least Rs 70 crore has been recovered and efforts are on to get the remaining amount back.

12:19 Normalcy returned to Darjeeling hills after three-and-half months following the suspension of the indefinite shutdown by Gorkha Janamukti Morcha (GJM), reports PTI. The town, known as the Queen of Hills, sprang back to life as news of the suspension of the agitation spread. People from all walks of life came out to the streets and celebrated the resumption of normal life in Darjeeling. All the shops and markets reopened today. GJM had last night suspended its agitation which it had launched on June 15 for a separate Gorkhaland. The strike was lifted from 6 am today in response to an appeal by Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh.

12:16 There’s no indication that this government is particularly superstitious, but if it were, it would be haunted by the belief that trouble comes in threes, finds Moneycontrol Research’s Shishir Asthana. As if demonetisation and GST were not enough to rock the economy, the country is now being visited by a demon that had chosen to stay away for the first half of the BJP’s term: high oil prices.

Market analysts and economists of varying expertise have used terabytes of memory space in writing about how the cash ban and GST have brought the economy to a three-year low and why things will only get worse before they improve. But the impact of oil prices could be just as crippling.

12:06 The merger of Vodafone India and Idea Cellular is on track and is expected to be completed in calendar year 2018, a top Vodafone official told PTI. Vodafone India MD and CEO Sunil Sood said "absolutely", when asked if the merger of the two telecom firms is on course. Stating that the merger process goes through various stages, including approvals from the CCI, Sebi, the NCLT and the telecom department, Sood said "we feel all of them are on track and in fact, we are going ahead on schedule".

12:03 Pakistan's Finance Minister Ishaq Dar was indicted by an anti-corruption court, hearing the Panama Papers case, for possessing assets beyond known sources of income, reports PTI. The minister pleaded not guilty to all charges, terming them baseless. Anti-corruption watchdog National Accountability Bureau (NAB) on September 8 filed a case against Dar for possessing assets beyond his known sources of income following the July 28 verdict of the Supreme Court.

12:02Glenmark Pharmaceuticals has received final approval from the US health regulator for Desonide lotion used to treat skin rashes and irritation. "Glenmark Pharmaceuticals has been granted final approval by the United States Food and Drug Administration (USFDA) for Desonide lotion, 0.05%," the company said in a regulatory filing. According to IMS health sales data, for the 12 months ended July, the Desonide lotion, 0.05%, achieved annual sales of around USD 23.2 million.

11:40 The World Bank has warned of a learning crisis in global education particularly in low and middle-income countries like India, underlining that schooling without learning is not just a wasted development opportunity, but also a great injustice to children worldwide, reports PTI.

The Bank in a latest report on Tuesday noted that millions of young students in these countries face the prospect of lost opportunity and lower wages in later life because their primary and secondary schools are failing to educate them to succeed in life.

According to the 'World Development Report 2018: 'Learning to Realise Education's Promise', released on Tuesday, India ranks second after Malawi in a list of 12 countries wherein a grade two student could not read a single word of a short text.

11:02 The Border Security Force's use of targeted firepower on farms and residences of Pakistan's serving and former army officers near the border resulted in Pakistan suing for peace, reports The Times of India. Codenamed 'Operation Arjun', the measure has seen BSF framing a robust response to Pakistan's use of snipers to kill jawans, besides firing on civilians and shelling villages along the border over the last month. The border force's counter-offensive on Pakistan's pain points saw the latter seek a ceasefire three days ago.

BSF has particularly targeted farms and residences of retired Pakistan army, ISI and Pakistan Rangers officers who have been given land near the Indian border to facilitate their task of guiding infiltration and providing logistical help in anti-operations India. Following the BSF action, Pakistan Rangers' Punjab DG Major General Azgar Naveed Hayat Khan called BSF director KK Sharma twice last week requesting a stop to the firing.

10:56 Divis Laboratories share plunged little more than 9% on Wednesday after its Vizag unit 2 received six observations from the US health regulator. After inspecting the plant during September 11-19, the US Food and Drug Administration has issued six observations including failure in testing individual batches and inadequate cleaning instructions, reports CNBC-TV18.

The USFDA pointed out that the company failed to test whether individual batches of final API conformed to all appropriate specifications. The lab failures have also not been thoroughly investigated. Among other observations, Divis failed to validate the manufacturing cleaning length of time and there are inadequate cleaning instructions for major equipment. Batch records are not always recorded, according to the regulator.

10:47 US Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said the US relationship with China was too lopsided and listed market access, protectionism and intellectual property as the biggest problems amid trade tensions between the two countries, reports Reuters.

10:38 India has been ranked as the 40^th most competitive economy -- slipping one place from last year's ranking -- on the World Economic Forum's global competitiveness index, which is topped by Switzerland, reports PTI. On the list of 137 economies, Switzerland is followed by the US and Singapore in second and third places, respectively. In the latest Global Competitiveness Report, India has slipped from the 39th position to 40th while neighbouring China is ranked at 27th.

10:35 Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath said the recent incidents in the Banaras Hindu University smacked of a "conspiracy" as prima facie reports suggest the role of anti-social elements, reports PTI. A number of students, including women, and two journalists were injured in a baton-charge by the police in BHU where a protest on Saturday night against an alleged eve-teasing incident turned violent. An inquiry has been ordered into the violence on the campus.

10:26 DEN Networks scrip advanced as much as 12.73% on reports the Mukesh Ambani-owned Reliance Industries is said to be in talks to acquire the Sameer Manchanda promoted multi-system operator (MSO). The Economic Times had reported that the deal is most likely to go through and the valuation DEN is looking at is between Rs 2,000 crore and Rs 2,200 crore.

10:18 To stop unauthorised trading activities by brokers in their clients' accounts, markets regulator Sebi on Tuesday asked brokers to store all records of orders placed by clients which are accepted in a court of law. These records include written documents signed by the client, recording of telephone conversations, emails from authorised email IDs, log for online transactions, SMSs or any other form of proof that is legally verifiable.

10:11 The government of Emmanuel Macron unveils its first budget today as the young president seeks to kick-start the French economy with a business-friendly agenda, reports AFP. The 39-year-old centrist is under pressure to balance an array of priorities, including boosting growth of 1.7% and lowering unemployment currently stuck at around 9.5% -- about twice that of Britain or Germany.

10:09 ICICI Lombard General Insurance Company debut on a tepid note, listing at Rs 651 per share against its issue price of Rs 661. The Rs 5,700-crore public issue was oversubscribed three times.

10:03 In what could lead to Vodafone India’s divestment of stake in tripartite joint venture Indus Towers Ltd, a top official from the company told Mint that some buyers have expressed “interest” in buying the company’s assets in Indus Towers. “We have received interests from some infrastructure companies as well as private equity funds,” the Vodafone official said. “Any decision to sell stake in Indus will depend upon buyers’ willingness to pay the right kind of return,” the executive said without disclosing the valuation of its stake in the company. Indus is a three-way joint venture between Vodafone India, Bharti Airtel and Idea Cellular. Vodafone and Bharti Infratel own 42% each while Idea owns 11.15%. US private equity firm Providence owns the balance 4.85%.

09:56 The Pakistan Army targeted forward posts along the LoC in Jammu & Kashmir's Poonch district with mortars and small arms fire, reports PTI. "The Indian Army is retaliating strongly and effectively," a Defence Spokesman said. "Pakistan Army initiated unprovoked and indiscriminate firing of small arms, automatic and mortars from 0815 hours in Poonch and Bhimbher Gali sectors along the Line of Control (LoC)", the spokesman said. The firing is still on.

09:34 Chinese bitcoin exchange BTCChina said it will stop accepting yuan and digital asset deposits on Wednesday as it prepares to wind down its mainland-based trading platform at the end of September, reports Reuters.

09:30 Amid reports of a fiscal stimulus to boost the sagging economy, a foreign brokerage has warned the present macro problems are due to higher spending and not lack of it and also not due to low revenue receipts and hence a pump priming maybe counterproductive this time around, reports PTI. "The fiscal stress is more a result of excess spending thus far, which has not left much room for spending in the remaining months: it can rise only 1.5% YoY in August-March versus 23.1% in April-July to meet the FY18 budgeted spending target. Therefore, a fiscal stimulus may not be so much to boost growth as to prevent a bigger drag," Nomura India Chief Economist Sonal Verma said in a report.

09:18 The Tata Group is not looking to sell its telecom business in its entirety, but will retain some valuable segments within the business, Mint reports.

09:11 Tokyo governor Yuriko Koike on Wednesday formally launched a new party promising conservative reform, stepping up her challenge to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and adding to uncertainty about the outlook for a general election widely expected next month, reports Reuters. But the popular former ruling party lawmaker, who is already upstaging Abe in the media and complicating forecasts, said she herself would not seek a seat in parliament’s lower house now.

08:58 Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi hit out at the Narendra Modi government for taking decisions like note ban and the GST roll-out "without listening to anybody" which "affected the backbone" of the country's economy, reports PTI. "This is the big difference between the Congress's ideology and the BJP's ideology. The Congress listens to everyone and then implements a big decision. This government did not listen to anybody and implemented the GST and demonetisation, which affected the backbone of country's economy," Gandhi said.

08:54 Saudi Arabia has announced that women will be allowed to drive for the first time in the ultra-conservative kingdom next summer, fulfilling a key demand of women's rights activists who faced detention for defying the ban, reports AP. The kingdom was the only the country in the world to bar women from driving and for years had garnered negative publicity internationally for detaining women who defied the ban.

08:53 The maker of France's iconic TGV trains Alstom has announced a "merger of equals" with German industrial leader Siemens in a politically tricky deal to create a new European rail champion, reports AFP. The group headquarters will be in the Paris area and 50% of the shares in the new entity owned by Siemens.

08:51 Chief Proctor of Banaras Hindu University ON Singh has resigned from his post after taking moral responsibility for the last week’s violence in the academic institution, reports CNN-News18. Singh had submitted resignation to Vice Chancellor Girish Chandra Tripathi last night, which was accepted. A number of students, including women, and two journalists were injured in the police action in BHU where a protest on Saturday night against an alleged eve-teasing incident turned violent.

08:30 ArcelorMittal’s interest in buying debt-ridden Indian steel companies could derail its planned USD 1 billion joint venture with Steel Authority of India (SAIL), reports Reuters. State-owned SAIL said any such buyout by the world’s top steelmaker, controlled by billionaire Lakshmi Mittal, could violate its exclusive partnership arrangement for manufacturing steel for cars.

ArcelorMittal and SAIL signed their preliminary agreement in 2015 but there has been little progress due to disputes over terms. Earlier this month, the steel ministry drafted a status report for Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s office which shows the two are nowhere near close to ironing out their differences.

08:29 Reliance Industries’ telecom upstart Jio is footing at least 40% of the cost of its basic 4G phone, reports Reuters, as it bets on recovering the investment by luring in millions of new customers. The JioPhone, rolling out this week for a refundable deposit of Rs 1,500 (USD 23.05), will cost at least Rs 2,500 (USD 39) to assemble. That means Jio will likely carry more than USD 150 million in costs for every 10 million JioPhones it sells.

08:14 China is "quite serious about living up to the commitments they have made regarding North Korea," US Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross told CNBC. The order for mainland lenders to stop doing business with Pyongyang "is a logical next step in the sanctions, and a very important one," he said.

08:11  As the nepotism debate rages on in politics and Bollywood, there is one conglomerate in the country that has a strict recruitment policy on hiring children of its working directors to avoid conflict of interest, reports The Times of India. Larsen & Toubro (L&T), the country's largest engineering and construction company, has a policy of not hiring children of executive directors till they retire. Also, permission needs to be taken from shareholders if non-executive directors want to induct their children into the company.

This is perhaps the first known instance of a large diversified enterprise having a recruitment policy that leaves little room for bias. AM Naik, Chairman of the USD 17-billion L&T, said because of this policy, "even my son cannot work with the organisation until I retire". The 75-year-old L&T lifer's son works with Google in the US. Naik will "step aside" from his executive position this month-end and will move into a non-executive role at the company where he started his career as a junior engineer in 1965.

08:07 Investors who subscribed to the initial public offering of SBI Life Insurance Co will receive their allotment today. The Rs 8,400 crore issue was oversubscribed 3.58 times on the final day of bidding on September 22. The IPO by SBI Life is one of the biggest IPOs in seven years.

08:04 ICICI Lombard General Insurance Company is set to debut on the bourses today. It has set the final issue price at Rs 661 per share, at the higher end of the price band. The Rs 5,700-crore public issue that ended last week was oversubscribed three times.

08:00 Interconect usage charge cannot be a profit vertical for companies, RS Sharma, Chairman, Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, stated. He told CNBC-TV18 that TRAI has been extremely objective and transparent about the IUC cut. “Logically, it would not be correct to link the over 50% cut in IUC to stress in the telecom sector.”

07:51 The first reading of the Goods & Services Tax (GST) collections in August has dropped nearly 2% compared to the first reading that was released in July. Collections for August came in a little over Rs 90,000 crore versus July’s first reading of a little over Rs 92,000 crore. The July collection now stands at over Rs 94,000 crore. However, compliance has emerged as a big concern with only 55% of the total registered assesses filing their returns for August so far.

07:45 Crude oil prices slipped after Brent crude hit a 26-month high during a rally fuelled by Turkey's threat to cut crude exports from Iraq's Kurdistan region as well as signs that market rebalancing is accelerating.

07:43 Britain’s main opposition Labour Party is ready for government, its leader Jeremy Corbyn will say on Wednesday, calling on Prime Minister Theresa May to end her government’s “Brexit bungling”, give up power and make way for his negotiators, reports Reuters. Corbyn is keen to press home his advantage over May, who is struggling to unite her party over Britain’s negotiations to leave the European Union and to keep her own position, under threat from some in the party who cannot forgive the loss of their parliamentary majority in a June election she called.

07:40 British police said on Tuesday they had released three men who were arrested in connection with the bomb attack on a London underground train earlier this month, report Reuters. Six people have now been released out of the seven arrested during the investigation into the September 15 attack at Parsons Green station in West London, London’s Metropolitan Police said.

07:38 Lloyds Banking Group said about 1,000 staff in its insurance division that they will be moving to Diligenta, a subsidiary of India’s Tata Consultancy Services, in a move criticised by trade union Unite, reports Reuters. Unite said that the staff at Scottish Widows and Clerical Medical in Edinburgh and Bristol will be transferred to the new company. No time frame for the move was given.

07:35 The Bank of England expects 130 financial firms from across Europe to apply for licences to continue operating in Britain after Brexit, its Deputy Governor Sam Woods said. As head of the Prudential Regulation Authority, Woods said he will also have to decide by Christmas if branches of European Union financial firms in London must convert to subsidiaries and be directly supervised by the PRA, reports Reuters.

07:33 US Republicans fell short yet again in their seven-year drive to repeal Obamacare, in a bitter defeat that raises more questions about their ability to enact President Donald Trump’s agenda, reports Reuters. The party was unable to win enough support from its own senators for a bill to repeal the 2010 Affordable Care Act and decided not to put it to a vote, several Republicans said. The bill’s sponsors vowed to try again, but face steeper odds after Sunday, when special rules expire that allow them to pass healthcare legislation without Democratic support.

07:31 US consumer confidence fell in September and home sales dropped to an eight-month low in August due to the impact of Hurricanes Harvey and Irma, supporting the view that the storms would hurt economic growth in the third quarter, reports Reuters. The Conference Board said on Tuesday its consumer confidence index declined to a reading of 119.8 this month from 120.4 in August, which was the highest reading in five months.

07:29 Gold prices were steady early Wednesday after falling over 1% in the previous session on hawkish comments from US Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen.

07:27 Profits earned by China’s industrial firms in August rose 24% from a year earlier, accelerating from the 16.5% gain in July, reports Reuters. Industrial profits increased 21.6% in the first eight months of 2017 year-on-year, versus a 21.2% rise in January-July. Total profits in August rose to 672 billion yuan, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said.

07:24 China’s economic growth likely slipped in the third quarter but was still in far better shape than last year, a private survey showed on Wednesday, while adding that major risks are looming for 2018, reports Reuters. Profits at Chinese firms are much healthier and hiring remains robust, but a five-quarter boom in commodities which has stoked growth has begun to reverse, according to the quarterly survey of thousands of Chinese firms by China Beige Book International (CBB).

07:20 Asian stocks hovered near multi-week lows as tensions in the Korean peninsula remain elevated. Even a softer yen could not stop Japan's Nikkei slipping 0.5%, while Australia's main index eased 0.1%. The SGX Nifty is trading flat.

07:14 The S&P 500 finished little changed as US tech stocks rebounded from their sharpest single-day selloff in five weeks. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 11.77 points, or 0.05%, to 22,284.32, the S&P 500 gained 0.18 points, or 0.01%, to 2,496.84 and the Nasdaq Composite added 9.57 points, or 0.15%, to 6,380.16.

07:10 The Federal Reserve needs to continue gradual rate hikes despite broad uncertainty about the path of inflation, Federal Reserve Chairman Janet Yellen said in remarks that acknowledged the central bank’s struggles to forecast one of its key policy objectives, reports Reuters. It is possible, Yellen said, that the Fed may have “mis-specified” its models for inflation, and “misjudged” key facts like the underlying strength of the labour market and whether inflation expectations are as stable as they seem, and central bankers need to remain open to that possibility as they decide on policy.

07:02 President Donald Trump warned North Korea that any US military option would be “devastating” for Pyongyang, but said the use of force was not Washington’s first option to deal with the country’s ballistic and nuclear weapons programme, reports Reuters. “We are totally prepared for the second option, not a preferred option,” Trump. “But if we take that option, it will be devastating, I can tell you that, devastating for North Korea. That’s called the military option. If we have to take it, we will.”

06:54 Good Morning Moneycontrol users. This blog will keep track of key global and local developments impacting business and markets through the day. Important local and global political developments will also find resonance here. Good Morning Moneycontrol users. This blog will keep track of key global and local developments impacting business and markets through the day. Important local and global political developments will also find resonance here.