WhatsApp Financial News

Power distribution utilities (discoms) legacy dues have come down by a whopping 82 per cent in over two years to Rs 24,684 crore this month, Parliament was informed on Thursday. Around 13 states reported arrears amounting to Rs 1,39,947 crore as of June 3, 2022, and rescheduled them into EMIs (equated monthly installments), Minister of State for Power Shripad Naik said in a written reply to Rajya Sabha. The minister said after the payment of 29 EMIs by the distribution utilities, including pre-payment of legacy dues by some utilities, the outstanding dues have reduced to Rs 24,684 crore as of December 6, 2024. The discoms have paid Rs 1,15,263 crore outstanding since June 2022, he added.

steel ministry has proposed that over a third of the total government steel procurement will be of low carbon variant. This 'Green steel' is defined as steel produced with emissions lower than 2.2 tonnes of carbon dioxide per tonne of finished steel. A star-rated grading system will also measure the greenness of steel, with five-star rating for emission intensity lower than 1.6 tonnes of CO2 equivalent per tonne of finished steel. According to a steel ministry presentation, up to 37% of all future steel procurement will be earmarked for green steel as an incentive to lower carbon intensity. A definition for Green steel was also announced by the Steel Ministry on Thursday. Speaking at an event to the mark the same, Union Steel Minister, H D Kumaraswamy said, «The green steel taxonomy will help set a benchmark for adopting global best practices and help India emerge as global leader in green steel production.»

Bombay High Court has held that not letting a child meet her mother amounts to 'cruelty' under the Indian Penal Code, and refused to quash a First Information Report registered against the in-laws of a Jalna-based woman. A bench of Justices Vibha Kankanwadi and Rohit Joshi at Aurangabad noted in its order of December 11 that the woman's daughter, only four years old, is being kept away from her despite a lower court's order. «Keeping a young child of four years away from her mother also amounts to mental harassment, amounting to cruelty in as much as it would certainly cause grave injury to the mental health of the mother,» the HC said. Such behaviour by in-laws amounts to 'cruelty' as defined under section 498-A of the IPC, the court added. «The mental harassment is continuing from day to day till date. It is a continuing wrong,» the bench observed. It would not quash the FIR as this was not a fit case for the court to interfere, it added. The woman's father-in-law, mother-in-law and sister-in-law had sought quashing of the 2022 FIR registered against them in Jalna district of Maharashtra for alleged cruelty, harassment and criminal intimidation.

India Meteorological Department (IMD) issuing an orange alert in four districts of the state for the day. The IMD sounded the orange alert in Kollam, Ernakulam, Idukki and Thrissur districts. The weather department also issued a yellow alert in eight districts of the state for the day. An orange alert means very heavy rain (6 cm to 20 cm). A yellow alert means heavy rainfall between 6 and 11 cm.

Ashok Leyland Ltd. 0.38 per cent to Rs 230.15 in Thursday's trade. It hit a high of Rs 231.35 and low of Rs 229.40 during the session. On the technical charts, the 200-DMA of the stock stood at Rs 217.58, while the 50-DMA was at Rs 222.93. If a stock trades above 50-DMA and 200-DMA, it usually means the immediate trend is upward. On the other hand, if the stock trades below 50-DMA and 200-DMA, it is considered a bearish trend and if trades between these averages, then it suggests the stock can go either way.

The NSE Nifty index traded 46.21 points down at 24595.6, while BSE Sensex was 91.86 points at 81434.28 as of 11:09AM(IST)on December 12.

Tata Elxsi Ltd. 0.41 per cent to Rs 7376.25 at 10:35AM (IST) in Thursday's trade. The counter has hit a high of Rs 7448.75 and low of Rs 7370.00 so far during the session. The stock had closed at Rs 7345.95 in the previous session. The counter has had a total traded volume of 2761 shares so far with a value of Rs 2.04 crore on the NSE. It traded at a price-to-earnings multiple of 56.27 and a price-to-book ratio of 19.34.

EID Parry(India)Ltd.(up 1.31%), Simbhaoli Sugars Ltd.(up 0.80%), Ponni Sugars(Erode)Ltd.(up 0.40%) and Magadh Sugar & Energy Ltd.(up 0.37%) were among the top gainers.

Vedanta Ltd. traded 1.67 per cent at Rs 522.70 at 10:30AM (IST) on Thursday, even as BSE benchmark Sensex 22.19 points to 81503.95. The scrip had settled at Rs 514.10 in the previous session. The stock quoted a 52-week high and 52-week low of Rs 526.50 and Rs 243.70, respectively.

DCM Ltd(up 19.99%), Apoorva Leasing Finance(up 19.98%), Shubham Polyspin(up 19.96%) and SAB Industries(up 17.53%) were among the stocks that surged over 15%.

The NSE Nifty index was trading 21.65 points down at 24620.15, while BSE Sensex was 16.11 points at 81510.03 at the time of writing this report.

Jay-Z has been publicly named in a civil lawsuit accusing him of raping a 13 year old girl in the year 2000 alongside Sean Diddy Combs. According to LA Times, the lawsuit which was initially filed against Sean Diddy Combs in the month of October was eventually amended to include Jay-Z after the plaintiff referred to as Jane Doe alleged that both men assaulted her at an after-party following the MTV Video Music Awards. LA Times reported that in accordance to the allegations, the girl was invited to the party by a driver claiming to work for Sean Diddy Combs and was later drugged and raped by Jay-Z and Sean Diddy Combs while another female celebrity allegedly watched. Also Read: LeBron James time's up? Some say the ace NBA star may ask Lakers to trade him in the coming weeks

LeBron James may be traded out by the Los Angeles Lakers in the coming days, something that is already scaring the basketballer's fan. However, these chances of getting traded out may be quite slim as the NBA star can simply choose to step out of his existing contract with the Lakers and join any team of his choosing.

Lok Sabha passed the Railways (Amendment) Bill, 2024 by a voice vote Wednesday. The bill seeks to repeal the Indian Railway Board Act, 1905 by incorporating the provisions for constitution and composition of the Railway Board into the Railways Act, 1989. Speaking during the debate on the proposed legislation, union railway minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said the bill will simplify the legal structure for operations of the Indian Railways. He also allayed concerns of privatisation and over centralisation of the Indian Railways raised by some members. Vaishnaw said there was no question of privatising the Indian Railways, adding that the infrastructure being developed was for the nation. He also said supremacy of parliament was not being affected by this legislation.

skills development secretary Atul Kumar Tiwari said, adding that the onus lies on the government, industry and academia to take advantage of the situation. «We have a window during which our working-age population is growing. During this time, there will be a situation, which comes once in a millennia, where India will have more young people than the old people,» Tiwari said on Wednesday while speaking at the Global Economic Policy Forum 2024.

Recent reports have revealed that numerous users throughout the globe are eventually experiencing major difficulties and problems to access these platforms while Downdetector has already shown spikes in the outage reports. Facebook has already seen over 100,000 reports regarding the issues whereas Instagram eventually recorded more than 70,000 reports. The global users are encountering an error message while they are trying to load the applications and during such time a message from Facebook states that, ‘We're working on getting this fixed as soon as we can’.

US chocolate maker Hershey has rejected a preliminary takeover offer from Mondelez International, people familiar with the matter said, potentially ending a fresh pursuit that would've created a food giant with combined sales of almost $50 billion. Hershey Trust, which has roughly 80% of the voting power at the company, turned down the bid as too low, said the people, who declined to be identified because discussions are private. Securing the trust's backing is vital for any deal for Hershey as it owns almost all of the company's Class B stock. Bloomberg News reported earlier this week that Mondelez made a preliminary approach for Hershey, citing people familiar with the matter. It's not the first time Mondelez has sought a deal. In 2016, it walked away from discussions about a potential takeover after seeing a $23 billion bid rejected by the chocolate maker.

The approved projects include a 99 MW wind power project, five ground-based solar projects of 91.77 MW and one rooftop solar project of 1.64 MW, it said. These projects will leverage Odisha's natural potential for renewable energy generation, emphasising the state's commitment to achieving its renewable energy goals under the Odisha Renewable Energy Policy-2022, the department said.

Gukesh and defending champion Ding Liren of China played out a draw in the 13th game of the World Chess Championship to remain level on points here on Wednesday. The drawn match left Gukesh, playing white, and Liren on an identical tally of 6.5 points each, still shy of one point in order to win the championship. The two players signed peace after 68 moves. The 32-year-old Liren had won the opening game, while the 18-year-old Gukesh had emerged victorious in the third game to draw level.

India must strive to become an economic powerhouse and for that, the country needs to work towards developing the newest sector of its economy: the digital world, Prime Minister Modi said on Wednesday. While addressing the Smart India Hackathon 2024 virtually, Modi stressed on the need for the country to pivot towards the enhancement of its digital possibilities. «If we want to become an economic superpower, then we must work on the enhancement of digital world, the newest economic sector.

Indian passport holders starting January 1, 2025, while the existing 60-day visa exemption for Indian travellers will remain in effect. Applicants, non-Thai nationals, must apply for all types of visas at the website https://www.thaievisa.go.th. Each application can be applied by (1) the applicants themselves or (2) other representatives. ALSO READ: Simplest hack for a cheap New Year's trip-go abroad