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Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI), a relatively low-profile yet pivotal miniratna PSU, has emerged as a key player in India’s renewable energy sector over the past decade. From its modest beginnings in 2014-15 with an awarded generation capacity of 0.75 gigawatts (750 MW), SECI now oversees a massive 65.3 GW of awarded capacity, according to its official data. Out of this, more than 60%—over 40 GW—is solar energy, a sector where India has seen significant growth. The remaining capacity includes 16.3 GW of wind energy and about 9 GW of hybrid energy projects. The organisation has not only facilitated renewable energy growth through competitive bidding and long-term power agreements but also developed its own projects and partnered with state utilities. Also Read:SECI link to Adani bribe, fraud probe: What put India's solar power nodal agency in the dock?

Uniqlo plans to expand production and sourcing in India to meet global demand. The company currently sources 15.5% of its products for Indian stores locally. «For our India stores, we are sourcing about 15.5% of our requirements locally but the share is higher for exports and the strategy is to keep sourcing more,» said Kenji Inoue, Uniqlo India's COO and CFO, in an interview to ToI. Items like T-shirts and heattech clothing are already being sourced from India for Uniqlo's global stores. Inoue believes India's growing middle class and their demand for quality products makes it a key market for the brand.

SECI) has found itself at the centre of a huge controversy in the wake of the probe that the US has launched into some of Adani's dealings. As per allegations made by the US Justice Department, officials were paid more than $250 million in bribes to okay solar deals with state govts. Adani Group Chairman Gautam S Adani, his nephew Sagar Adani, and six others have been charged with paying these bribes. It may be mentioned here that SECI is the the nodal agency and a top trader of renewable energy in India. It holds the highest trading license. The company buys power from developers. It acquires this power through its tendering process. SECI then sells this power to electricity distribution companies. These sales happen through long-term agreements. SECI buys power from renewable energy project developers chosen through competitive bidding. They then sell this power to electricity distribution companies (DISCOMs) through long-term agreements known as Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs) and Power Sale Agreements (PSAs).

Penn State has won a closely watched trademark fight over an online retailer’s use of its vintage logos and images

RBI and the Maldives Monetary Authority on Thursday signed an agreement here for establishing a framework to promote the use of local currencies — the Indian Rupee and the Maldivian Rufiyaa (MVR) for cross-border transactions. The Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed by Governor of Reserve Bank of India Shaktikanta Das and Governor of Maldives Monetary Authority Ahmed Munawar. «The MoU encourages the use of INR and MVR in current account transactions, permissible capital account transactions and any other economic and financial transactions as agreed upon by both countries,» the RBI said in a statement. This framework would enable exporters and importers to invoice and settle in their respective domestic currencies, which in turn would enable the development of trading in the INR-MVR pair in foreign exchange market.

Nippon Life India Asset Management has executed a definitive agreement with realty developer Lodha, listed as Macrotech Developers, to acquire an office space spread across two floors in a commercial tower One Lodha Place in Mumbai’s business district Lower Parel for Rs 486 crore. The asset management company is planning to shift its headquarters in this office spread over 52,162 sq ft from Peninsula Business Park in the vicinity. “The deal was registered on Thursday noon. The buyer has paid a certain amount of the consideration and the stamp duty, and is expected to pay Rs 400 crore by December 6,” said a person with direct knowledge of the development.

CRF1100 Africa Twin to rectify issues with throttle operation. The voluntary recall is aligned with the global market action, the two-wheeler maker said in a statement. The recall affects certain units of this adventure motorcycle manufactured between February 2022 and October 2022, it said. The company has identified a concern with the motorcycle's throttle operation, HMSI said.

Kenya’s president says he has cancelled multimillion-dollar airport expansion and energy deals with Indian tycoon Gautam Adani after U.S. bribery and fraud indictments against one of Asia’s richest men

hoax bomb calls to airlines and such calls have reduced, a senior government official said on Thursday. Civil Aviation Secretary Vumlunmang Vualnam also said that procedures being adopted to deal with fog-related disruptions have been streamlined. To a query about hoax bomb calls, he said that authorities have tackled them successfully. A few weeks back, hundreds of flights had received bomb threat calls that later turned out to be hoaxes. These threats had significantly impacted flight operations of various domestic carriers.

Adani Group. Ruto said he had also directed the cancellation of a more than $700 million deal the energy ministry had signed with a unit of the Adani Group to construct power transmission lines. This comes after U.S. prosecutors indicted Adani for conspiring with executives of a former New York-listed company to devise a $265 million scheme to bribe Indian officials and boost their solar energy business.

dollar inflows into local stocks and bonds and curbed the rupee from excess appreciation. The rupee appreciated 0.1% in September boosted by strong risk appetite following the US Federal Reserve's outsized 50 bps rate cut. However, the currency's upside was limited due absorption of dollar inflows by the Reserve Bank of India.

Tata Power, and Asian Development Bank (ADB) on Thursday signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to evaluate financing for its several strategic projects aimed at enhancing India’s power infrastructure and promoting renewable and clean energy. The MoU outlines the evaluation of financing for several key ongoing projects such as the 966 MW solar-wind hybrid project and pumped hydro storage project and other projects in the pipeline around energy transition, decarbonization, and battery storage as well as ongoing financing for capex towards strengthening the distribution networks managed by Tata Power. The total estimated project cost is approximately $4.25 billion.

Indian School of Business (ISB) has received a CSR gift of Rs 30 crore from the Ramoji Foundation towards aiding infrastructure development at the school’s Hyderabad campus, the institute said in a release on Thursday. The funds received through this gift will support the construction of a state-of-the-art 430-seater auditorium as part of the upcoming Executive Centre. Upon completion, the facility will boost the school’s capacity to host international conferences, research seminars, distinguished lectures, and other academic events. Harish Manwani, Chairperson of the ISB Board, said in a statement: “The largesse of our donors has played an important role in ISB's ability to stay true to its vision of being a world-class institution for learning and research. We are grateful for this contribution from Ramoji Foundation that will go a long way in sustaining the top-notch infrastructure that enables ISB in this endeavour.”

Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea cumulatively lost over one crore wireless subscribers in September, even as state-owned BSNL surprised with net adds of almost 8.5 lakh mobile users, as per monthly data released by TRAI. Reliance Jio lost 79.69 lakh mobile subscribers in September compared to the previous month, Bharti Airtel (14.34 lakh users), and Vodafone Idea (15.53 lakh users). Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) added 8.49 lakh users to its wireless subscriber tally. The wireless subscriber base of Reliance Jio stood at 46.37 crore in September, while that of Bharti Airtel was 38.34 crore. The wireless user base of Vodafone Idea was 21.24 crore as of September 2024.

BEML on Thursday said it has secured an order worth Rs 246.78 crore from Central Coalfields Ltd (CCL) for the supply of rear dump trucks which are used in mining operations. As part of the order, BEML said it will supply 48 BH60M rear dump trucks, along with spares, and also provide after-sales service support. «BEML has secured a substantial order worth Rs 246.78 crore from Central Coalfields Limited (CCL),» it said. The trucks have been developed in-house with features like a 360-degree rear camera for comprehensive visibility and improved safety, an automatic fire suppression system for emergency preparedness, and an auto lube system to ensure seamless maintenance, BEML said in a statement.

Adani Group, helmed by billionaire Gautam Adani, bounced back from the attack by American short-seller Hindenburg Research, which had accused it of stock manipulation and fraud, the conglomerate has suffered a massive hit as prosecutors in the United States charged Gautam Adani with helping drive a $250 million bribery scheme. Stocks of Adani Group companies fell up to 20% on Thursday after Adani and seven others faced charges in the US. Prosecutors have alleged that the group bribed Indian officials to secure solar energy contracts. The US prosecutors have charged Adani and others because they allege the defendants concealed the plan to pay more than $250 million in bribes to Indian government officials to win solar energy contracts as they sought to raise money from US investors. The mega Adani deal that has landed in controversy

Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea—continued to suffer major customer losses for the third month in a row in September, even as state-run BSNL continued its addition spree, following the mobile tariffs hikes by the private telcos in early July. As per data released by Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) for the month of September, Jio lost 7.9 million wireless customers, followed by Vodafone Idea which saw a decline of 1.5 million wireless customers and Bharti Airtel lost 1.4 million wireless users. Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL), was the only telco which added wireless customers in September as the state-run firm had not raised tariffs and is benefitting because users are shifting to the company. BSNL added 849,493 subscribers during the month. The three private telcos had raised mobile rates in the range of 11-25% in early July and these firms have been seeing their user base decline after that.

Shares of Bharti Airtel are likely to remain in focus today as the company has awarded a multi-year, multi-billion deal to the Finnish telecom gear supplier Nokia to deploy 4G and 5G equipment across key Indian cities and states. “Nokia has been awarded a multi-year, multi-billion extension deal by Bharti Airtel (‘Airtel’) to deploy 4G and 5G equipment across key Indian cities and states,” said the company filing to the exchanges.

tariff increases and seek to avoid labor-related disruptions at alternate ports. “The Port of Los Angeles handled a robust 905,000 container units in October,” Executive Director Gene Seroka told reporters on Wednesday. That’s a 25% gain over last year and is the first time the port handled more than 900,000 containers for four months in a row. “Los Angeles processed more cargo between July and October than we did during our peak year in 2021 or our second-best year in 2022,” Seroka said.

A Philadelphia jury has awarded $11 million to a man whose holstered Sig Sauer pistol went off by itself while he was going down the stairs

oil refinery and a petrochemical hub at Ramayapatnam in Nellore district that entails an investment of Rs 60,000 crore, fulfilling a promise made at the time of the state’s bifurcation in 2014 and giving chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu a boost. Bharat Petroleum Corp. Ltd (BPCL) will establish the refinery and hub on 1,000 acres of land, said people with knowledge of the matter. As first reported by ET on July 11, the state government had offered three locations to BPCL — Srikakulam, Machilipatnam and Ramayapatnam. After a meeting with the BPCL’s senior leadership in July, Naidu had ordered detailed feasibility studies for the three sites. A formal announcement is likely to be made by the end of the month, said the people cited above.