Global retail giant Walmart has approached fair trade regulator CCI for approval of its proposed acquisition of a majority stake in e-commerce major Flipkart, saying the deal doesn’t raise any competition concerns. Stating that the proposed acquisition would be done through its subsidiary Wal-Mart International Holdings, Walmart has told the regulator that Flipkart is a Singapore-based investment holding firm, which along with its direct and indirect subsidiaries, both in India and elsewhere, is...

Stock market investors on Monday gave a thumbs up to gem and jewellery stocks, thanks to the continuous fall in the yellow metal prices overseas. The precious metal sank to over five-year lows in global markets. Gold futures crashed as much as 4.6 per cent in the Asian markets, as China on Friday revised its official gold reserves upwards, marginally. On the domestic market, gold prices fell below ₹25,000 per 10 grams on Monday, tumbling ₹524 in futures trade in early trades. Shares of Shree...

Reminding the Narendra Modi government that cleaning of Ganga was on its poll manifesto, the Supreme Court today asked why urgent steps are not being taken on it and set a two-week timeline for it to come up with a road map for making the 2500 km long river pollution free. A bench headed by Justice T S Thakur said the issue of cleaning Ganga is very important and it has to be put on the front burner. "Are you saving river Ganga? It was also there in your manifesto. Why don't you act on it?,"...

Mahindra and Mahindra Ltd (MAHM.NS) fell 2.4 percent on worries that weak monsoon may hit its tractor sales, investors say. Nearly a third of the company's revenues come from tractor sales which are largely dependent on farmers' incomes that can get severely impacted due to any shortfall in rains, analysts say. The monsoon has covered half of India's landmass four days behind the usual schedule, failing to recover from a late start that has slowed sowing of summer crops in a country where half...

The 50-share Nifty index is expected to open higher on Friday following positive trend seen in other Asian markets. Tracking the momentum, the index is expected to reclaim its crucial psychological level of 7,500 in trade today. At 07:30 a.m., Nifty India stock futures in Singapore were trading 35 points higher at 7,525.00 a positive opening on the domestic market. The benchmark Sensex created history on Thursday by closing above the 25,000 mark for the first time on heavy buying in metal, power...

A sharp fall in plan expenditure has helped pull India's fiscal deficit for last financial year below the government's estimate, but the cut in spending on productive activities has left an impact on the economy. The deficit, or the shortfall in the government's revenue to meet expenses, narrowed to 4.5% of gross domestic product in the year ended on March 31, compared with 4.9% initially estimated in the 2013-14 budget and the revised 4.6% given out with the interim budget for 2014-15 in February. Plan...

Popular messaging app WhatsApp has now crossed 500 million users. The company which was bought by Facebook in February this year  - for a gigantic amount of $19 billion – has been steadily adding to its growing list of users. Last year in August, WhatsApp had 200 million users while the number doubled to 430 million in January 2014. The instant messaging app had also revealed that it processes 50 billion messages on an average every day. Jan Koum, co-founder of WhatsApp says in a post on...

The Indian rupee recovered from early losses and gained 31 paise to close at a one-month high of 62.05 against the US dollar today on fresh selling by exporters and banks, amid foreign capital inflows into local stocks. The Indian rupee opened lower at 62.40 per Us dollar against the previous close of 62.36 at the interbank foreign exchange market and dropped further to 62.55 on US dollar demand from banks and importers. It recovered to 62.04 per dollar before ending at 62.05, a gain of 31 paise...

Gabriella Hoffman’s paycheck is a little lighter today, thanks to a payroll tax increase that is forcing millions of Americans to make the kind of tough budget cuts their representatives in Washington lawmakers seem unwilling to tackle. Hoffman, a 21-year-old Virginian who works at a nonprofit, estimates her paycheck will be roughly $30 less this biweekly pay period, or about $780 annually, thanks to the end of a two-year cut on payroll taxes, which fund Social Security. The tax has risen back...