City Chennai Financial News

CBI court on Friday granted five days' remand to 3 arrested Railway employees, arrested in connection with the probe into the Blasore triple-train accident, for further interrogation. The CBI had demanded seven days' remand of the trio for further investigation but the court granted only five days.

Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) has sent notices to seven exporters who were allegedly exporting restricted products. The directorate has confiscated some shipments of chemicals, minerals, metal and alloys and some essential commodities, which were under the special chemicals, organisms, materials, equipment and technologies (SCOMET) list, officials said. The shipments were confiscated by the Mumbai, Gujarat and Chennai zones, they said.

Indian Railways may soon change the colour combination of the semi-high-speed train Vande Bharat Express. At present the colour scheme of Vande Bharat consists of white colour with blue strips but it may change soon according to some reports. Railway Minister Ashwani Vaishnaw will visit the Integral Coach Factory(ICF) in Chennai where the manufacturing of the Vande Bharat trains are being done and is likely to approve the new colour scheme according to a railway official.

The CBI on Friday took into custody three railway personnel in connection with the June 2 Balasore train accident, making its first arrests in the case, officials said.The agency arrested Senior Section Engineer (signal) Arun Kumar Mahanta, Section Engineer Mohammed Amir Khan and Technician Pappu Kumar, all posted in Balasore district, the officials said.

Information Technology Rajeev Chandrasekhar reiterated on Friday. The Minister, who was speaking on the sidelines of the inauguration of the 6 MV Medical Linear Accelerator (LINAC) System, developed and deployed by Sameer (Society for Applied Microwave Electronics Engineering & Research) in Chennai, said States were authorised to regulate gambling but not online gaming.

Sri Lanka's Jaffna will be increased from four times a week to daily services from July 16, a move that will also amplify trade and commerce, Union Minister of Civil Aviation Jyotiraditya Scindia said. Scindia made the announcement in a pre-recorded video message on the second day of the 67th annual convention of the Travel Agents Association of India (TAAI) being hosted in Colombo.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has arrested three railway officials in connection with the Odisha train accident in which 293 people were killed -- 287 on the spot or brought dead to hospital while six succumbed to injuries in hospitals. More than 1,000 people were injured in the Odisha train accident.

Jodhpur-Ahmedabad Vande Bharat trains from Gorakhpur, increasing the number of semi-high speed trains in the country to 25. Gorakhpur-Lucknow Vande Bharat Express will connect Ayodhya to both of the cities.

Akasa Air, India’s newest airline, has further enhanced its domestic connectivity by starting direct flights between Mumbai and Kolkata from July 7, 2023 onwards. The airline will connect Kolkata with three destinations, including Bengaluru, Mumbai, and Guwahati, and has also ramped up its frequency between Delhi and Ahmedabad with two daily flights.

Upcoming professional Twenty20 cricket league in the US, Major League Cricket (MLC) has signed media rights partnership in India with Viacom18 Media Private Limited’s sports network. The league, operated by American Cricket Enterprises (ACE) and sanctioned by USA Cricket, will be covered on OTT platform JioCinema and broadcast television coverage on Sports18, beginning July.

Premier League (IPL) title, defending champions Gujarat Titans in the final in Ahmedabad.  Apart from Dhoni, veteran all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja also played a pivotal role in CSK equalling the Mumbai Indians' record of IPL titles. His birthday wish for Dhoni is breaking the internet today.  Taking to Twitter, Jadeja said, “My go to man since 2009 to till date and forever. Wishing you a very happy birthday mahi bhai.see u soon in yellow #respect." In IPL 2023, everything went well for the Chennai Super Kings (CSK) except for the claimed rift between skipper MS Dhoni and Ravindra Jadeja.

Reliance owned Viacom 18 bagged media rights for broadcasting the first ever edition of Major League Cricket (MLC) on Friday, the company said in a release. While the details of the deal were not mentioned, the Reliance flagship announced that the coverage will be on multiple platforms including live streaming on JioCinema and broadcast television coverage on Sports18.

Domestic firms continued to lead the absorption in April-June’2023 and H1 2023, accounting for a share of 43% and 46%, respectively, mainly led by flexible space operators, technology corporates and BFSI firms according to a report by CBRE. The report points out that office leasing increased by 12% Q-o-Q and touched 13.9 mn. sq. ft. during the April-June’23 period. Bangalore, Chennai, and Pune led the absorption in Q2 2023, accounting for about 59% of the transaction activity. During the quarter (April-June’23), technology companies witnessed an uptick in activity, accounting for 29% of the leasing, followed by flexible space operators (18%), engineering & manufacturing firms (17%) and BFSI corporates (17%). “India is expected to be amongst the world’s fastest-growing economies amidst a likely weakening of global macroeconomic conditions. We believe that the share of domestic firms in leasing would also remain strong during the year; at the same time, their greater emphasis on return to offices (RTO) is also expected to boost their operations,” said Anshuman Magazine, Chairman & CEO — India, South-East Asia, Middle East & Africa, CBRE. Leasing in the BFSI sector was driven by deal closures by global capability centres of BFSI corporates, Indian banks, and insurance firms. Most of these corporate are focusing on expanding their footprint.

Vande Bharat Express is an indigenously manufactured, semi-high-speed, self-propelled train set. The train has state-of-the-art passenger amenities, providing passengers with a faster, more comfortable, and more convenient travel experience. It was first known as Train 18 and was manufactured at the Integral Coach Factory(ICF) in Chennai.

Association of Mutual Funds of India (Amfi). The data explicitly states that small-cap funds, among all categories, were the biggest beneficiaries of a huge inflow of funds in the last six months. Small-cap funds started gaining momentum in March after they delivered eye-popping returns to existing investors .

Indian Oil Corporation Limited (IOCL), Chennai, has committed to invest Rs 54,000 crore in various projects in Tamil Nadu in the next few years, including a 9 MMTPA (million metric tonnes per annum) grass-root refinery at an estimated cost of Rs 35,580 crore, its executive director and state head (TN & Puducherry) V C Asokan said here on Thursday. This new refinery, which will come up on about 1,300 acres of land in Nagapattinam, will produce petrol and diesel for BS-VI specifications and also polypropylene.

Atsuya Technologies, a Chennai-based startup, has been selected as one of the 20 Indian companies participating in Class 7 of Google's coveted Startup Accelerator programme, the company said in a press release. Google's three-month accelerator programme offers Indian tech companies utilising AI/ML or data access to Google's resources, programmes, people, products, and technology.

Confirming it, the officials said Thursday that Jos Butler will return to Paarl Royal to steer them for the second time. Paarl Royals is owned by the owner of the Indian Premier League franchisee Rajasthan Royals. Mumbai Indians Cape Town have signed deals with Sam Curran, Liam Livingston and Tom Banton. But Jofra Archer is out of the reckoning due to his injuries. Afghanistan leg-spinner Rashid Khan will captain Mumbai Indians Cape Town. The IPL franchisee Mumbai Indians own this team. MI Cape Town have also signed a deal with fast bowler Kagiso Rabada for the second year.Joburg Super Kings have retained Moeen Ali and signed seamer Sam Cook. The owners of IPL franchisee Chennai Super Kings own this team. Durban Super Giants have signed Reece Topley while Sunrisers Eastern Cape have signed Liam Dawson and Dawid Malan.Cricket South Africa launched the SA20 League last year and it has received an extremely good response, surpassing its expectation in terms of broadcast rights, commercial benefits, and huge crowds of fans. Buoyed by its success, League Commissioner and fore South Africa captain Graeme Smith has expressed confidence that it will go from strength to strength from year to year.

The move can be linked with a potential surge in the demand for homestay properties from certain cities such as Ahmedabad, Dharamshala, and other metros across the country due to ICC world cup 2023. This year India will be hosting the ICC world cup from October 5 to November 19 across 10 venues in Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Dharamsala, Delhi, Chennai, Lucknow, Pune, Bengaluru, Mumbai, and Kolkata. “Cricket fans are more willing than ever to explore homestays as an accommodation option,” said Parikshit Choudhury, Chief Business Officer of Alternate Accommodation and Customer Contact Group, MakeMyTrip. Furthermore, the company has also developed a new feature where users can track the distance of the accommodation from the cricket stadium in the city.

tomato prices remained highest at Rs 152 per kg in Kolkata, followed by Rs 120 per kg in Delhi, Rs 117 per kg in Chennai and Rs 108 per kg in Mumbai, according to the data maintained by the Consumer Affairs Ministry. The all-India average retail tomato price was ruling at Rs 95.58 per kg on Thursday.

Crisil Market Intelligence and Analytics report. Crisil's monthly indicator of food plate cost said that soaring tomato, pulses, and staple grain prices have added pressure on the platter. Per plate veg thali, as per Crisil estimates, increased from Rs 25.1 in April to Rs 26.3 in June.