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  Gaming lovers went through a rough patch when  Microsoft   Xbox  services suffered a massive outage that stopped them from launching Cloud games. Microsoft  later fixed the issue that lasted for several hours late on Sunday. The  Xbox  Live outage stopped some players from launching cloud games, playing digital games and making purchases from its store. "Players may be seeing improvement when purchasing & launching games & Cloud Gaming sessions. We are working on full resolution. If you still see issues, rebooting your console may help,"  Microsoft   Xbox  support said in a tweet. It later informed that the glitch was fixed. "Players should no longer be seeing issues when it comes to purchases, launching games, or joining Cloud Gaming sessions. Thanks for being patient. Happy gaming!" Some players were unable to even access streaming apps including Netflix and Disney Plus. Some users reported that Xbox prompted th...

  Maruti Suzuki  India (MSI) on Wednesday said it has joined hands with  Indian Bank  to facilitate easy finance for customers. As part of the partnership, the company's customers can avail the loan benefits in over 5,700 plus branches of  Indian Bank  at metro, urban, semi-urban and rural locations. Maruti Suzuki  customers, under this exclusive scheme, can avail loans up to 90 per cent of the on-road price of the car besides getting benefits of zero processing charges, free accidental insurance cover up to Rs 30 lakh, free fastag and repayment tenure up to 84 months on their loans. The scheme is open till June 30 2022. "About 80 per cent of retail sales in the automobile industry happen through financing and to enable our customer's car-buying decisions,  Maruti Suzuki  has initiated several partnerships with banks & NBFCs across the public and private sectors. It is our firm belief that this partnership with  Indian Bank ...

  Reliance and Viacom18 on Wednesday announced a strategic partnership with Bodhi Tree Systems -- a platform of James Murdoch's Lupa Systems and Uday Shankar -- to form one of the largest TV and digital streaming  companies  in India. Bodhi Tree Systems is leading a fund raise with a consortium of investors to invest Rs 13,500 crore in Viacom18, to jointly build India's leading entertainment platform and pioneer the Indian media landscape's transformation to a "streaming-first" approach. Viacom18 is amongst the leading players in the core linear television business with 38 channels across nine languages and a pan-India presence. The transaction is expected to close within six months and is subject to closing conditions and requisite approvals. Reliance Projects and Property Management Services, a wholly-owned subsidiary of  Reliance Industries  which has significant presence in television, OTT, distribution, content creation, and production services, wil...

  Chinese smartphone major Xiaomi on Thursday said its arm MI India will distribute 2,500 handsets worth Rs 2 crore to support  online education  of children who are worst affected by the COVID-19 pandemic in the country. "MI India distribution and retails came up with a fantastic idea. Together they will be contributing 2,500  smartphones  to enable children most impacted by the pandemic to access quality education. In this endeavour we found the right partner Teach for India who is committed to the cause," its chief operating officer Muralikrishnan B said in an online video. The company's managing director Manu Jain said MI India is committed to digital India initiative and has always supported education for all. The company shared that the  smartphones  pledged are worth Rs 2 crore. Jain appealed to people to bring in notice of the company about anyone who needs a smartphone for  online education  and the company will try to h...

Japanese imaging giant  Nikon  on Tuesday launched a new full-frame mirrorless camera  Nikon  Z 5 in India at a starting price of Rs 1,13,995. According to the company, the  Nikon  Z 5 is compact and lightweight, allowing users to move freely as the camera only weighs approximately 675 grams, and will be available from August 27.    "From the superb depiction of details to great low-light shooting capability, to fast-focusing reaction and compact portability, we are certain that consumers will appreciate the camera's superior capabilities to capture their images and videos," Sajjan Kumar, Managing Director, Nikon India, said in a statement. The camera features improved user-friendliness, which eases the handling and operation via a touch screen and its customisable "i-Menu" that provides shortcuts to frequently used settings in one interface. The camera has 20 different types of Creative Picture Control, which works like fav...

Apple has lifted purchase limits on its phones, tablets and laptops for customers outside China, the media reported. The company last week imposed a purchase limits across several of its products, reports MacRumors. The new MacBook Air and Mac mini were limited to five orders per customer, the new iPad Pro was limited to two 11-inch models per customer and two 12.9-inch models per customer, and iPhones were limited to two of each model per customer. Meanwhile, some purchase limits have yet to be lifted in China. The restrictions were imposed to better manage the demand-supply ratio following a slowdown in production due to factory shutdowns in China. Additionally, Apple is still on course to launch a 12.9-inch iPad Pro with a mini-LED display later this year. A new supply chain report says that Apple will utilize mini LED in an iPad Pro and the source further claims that this is only the start of Apple adopting this display technology, as the company aims ...

Coronavirus concerns , corporate results, and macro data will be the top triggers for Indian indices today. Investors might turn cautious after China's Hubei province reported a record rise in the coronavirus death toll on Thursday, as global health experts warned the epidemic could get far worse before it is brought under control. Health officials in Hubei province said 242 people had died from the flu-like virus on Wednesday that brought the total number of deaths in the province to 1,310. Market participants will also react to macro numbers released post market hours yesterday. Retail inflation in January rose to a multi-year high of 7.59 percent, while industrial output contracted 0.3 percent in December, against a growth of 1.8 percent in November, data showed. The figures might dent investors' outlook on the revival in the Indian economy. On the results front, almost 615 companies, including BPCL, Page Industries, Nestle India, and Apollo Hospitals Enterpri...

Eight years back, Samsung became the leader in the mobile phone industry in India with the roll out of " Galaxy S3 " from its Noida facility. Today, as the Indian smartphone market witnessed a modest 8 per cent (Year-on-Year) growth in 2019, the South Korean giant registered declining shipments among the top five brands. The last eight years or so have seen Chinese invasion like never before (Chinese smartphone brands captured 72 per cent of the Indian market in 2019 compared to 60 per cent in 2018), launching devices with top-notch features while taking the average selling point (ASP) further down. A premium player from the very beginning, Samsung faced the heat as smartphones became more affordable with each passing year, and players like Xiaomi and Vivo captured the affordable to mid-premium segments, forcing the company to launch online exclusive M-series in the budget segment and revamping the 'A' series in the mid-segment, which have so far been...

Godrej Appliances on Monday said it will invest Rs 700 crore to increase its annual appliance production capacity by 19 lakh units by 2022, taking it up to 65 lakh units per annum. The appliances maker also plans to introduce newer technologies and carry out backward integration. "Godrej Appliances is all set to invest another Rs 700 crore by 2022. This latest announcement takes the tally of Godrej Appliances' investment in capacity and technology expansion to Rs 1,100 Crore over a period of six years," the Godrej & Boyce Mfg Co unit said. The fresh investment is aimed at raising the company's annual appliance production capacity by 19 lakh units by 2022, increasing it up to 65 lakh units per annum, it added. With this investment, Godrej Appliances plans to double the current capacity for washing machines - both fully automatic top load and semi-automatic - at its Shirwal and Mohali plants. Read Complete Article

Digital tech major Wipro on Tuesday signed a memorandum of understanding with the University of Oulu in Finland to collaborate in the areas of wireless communications in 5G/6G at GHz, THz and lightwave frequencies under the university's 6G flagship programme. The University of Oulu is an international science university, which focuses on innovation for the future, well-being, and knowledge through research and education. "The new research partnership between Wipro and University of Oulu regarding 5G and 6G will boost innovation and is an excellent start for the mutually beneficial cooperation between Finland and Wipro," said Timo Harakka, Minister of Employment at Finland's Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment. Kari Leppanen, Professor of Practice at the University of Oulu, said as the leader of world's first major 6G research programme, 6G Flagship focuses on wireless communications leading to 6G technologies. "We look forward to targeted...

Lenovo India on Tuesday launched ThinkBook -- a new sub-brand dedicated to small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) in the country. The company has made two additions to the ThinkBook sub-brand with the ThinkBook 14 and ThinkBook 15 which will be available in the first week of December at a starting price of Rs 30,990. Backed by customer research, ThinkBook is specially designed for the SMBs, thus, providing a unique balance of premium metal design to appeal to the new workforce with business grade security and services. "Our vision of smarter technology for all is a world where every person and business has access to technology that enables them to achieve their own intelligent transformation. Read Complete Article

Business Standard : The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) said on Thursday that Maggi noodles was completely safe for consumption. FSSAI CEO Pawan Agarwal told Business Standard that all the test reports on Maggi noodles, since its re-entry into the domestic market, had found it to be fit for consumption. “ Nestlé India has been regularly conducting and submitting test reports on Maggi as per self-compliance procedure. There have been no negative reports on Maggi since it was re-launched," he said. News digest: Maggi row, cash-rich promoters, fiscal deficit target and more Maggi fiasco returns to haunt Nestle India as SC revives class action suit More than three years after the Maggi ban, the ghost of the 2015 fiasco seems to be back to haunt Nestlé India, the maker of Maggi noodles . The Supreme Court on Thursday revived a class action suit filed by the Union government against the Swiss food major for allegedly selling noodles that were u...

TCS India's Tata Sons is set to sell on Tuesday a roughly 1.5 percent stake in its flagship Tata Consultancy Services for about $1.25 billion. Tata Sons, which owned 73.5 percent of TCS as of end-December, is selling TCS shares in a price range of Rs 2,872 to Rs 2,925 each, according to a deal term sheet. That would be a discount of 4.2 to 5.9 percent to TCS's Monday closing price of Rs 3,052.15. TCS, the top Indian software services exporter, is the second-most valuable company in the country with a market capitalisation of close to $90 billion. Citigroup and Morgan Stanley are managing the TCS share sale. Click Here To know More - TCS

Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (Irdai) on Monday said though Aadhar is not a mandatory requirement for Know Your Customer (KYC) in the insurance sector, it is the most simple form of KYC document. "Aadhar is not mandatory for the (insurance) sector but is the most simple one. On the government level they are creating a platform for all the KYC. "We are also working with the government for very simple KYC. But what can be simpler than a Aadhar," IRDAI Chairman T S Vijayan told reporters on the sidelines of CII's 19th Insurance Summit here. Talking about Life Insurance Corporation's (LIC) shareholdings in listed companies, Vijayan said regulation for investment is 15 per cent, in exceptional circumstances sometimes exemptions are given to invest more. "All the investment should be for the benefit of policy holders and investors and the companies should not be locking the money in and they should use the funds for the polic...

Punjab National Bank has registered 12 per cent rise in net profit at Rs 343 crore during the first quarter of 2017-18, but farm debt waiver in some states has hit its bad debts. The bank has got board approval to raise Rs 3,000 crore from equity and bonds each this financial year. Of this, the bank has already raised Rs 1,500 crore from bonds. As such, the bank has not asked the government for any capital this financial year, Sunil Mehta, MD & CEO, PNB told reporters here. The bank has not taken a decision to cut savings rate in line with the leader SBI, but its asset and liabilities committee (ALCO) will deliberate on the issue and take a call next week, Mehta said before the release of the RBI monetary review. The bank plans to raise Rs 1,000 crore from the sale of its non-core assets, but has not taken a call to sell stake in PNB Housing, where its lock-in period ends in November. PNB's credit grew 6.8 per cent during the quarter, Mehta said. However, cre...

Flipkart , India's largest e-commerce marketplace said it will begin offering the global inventory of eBay to Indian consumers while taking the products of thousands of sellers in the country to eBay's customers globally. This comes after Flipkart completed the takeover of the India operations of eBay. In a deal announced in April, Flipkart raised $1.4 billion from global technology majors eBay, Tencent and Microsoft. In exchange for an equity stake in Flipkart, eBay had made a cash investment and sold its eBay.in business to Flipkart. Flipkart will now own and operate eBay.in, which however will remain an independent entity.Additionally, both companies are also partnering to leverage opportunities in cross-border trade. As a result, Flipkart customers will get expanded product choices with the wide array of global inventory available on eBay, while eBay customers will have access to more unique Indian inventory from Flipkart sellers. The partnership will thus provide...

Financial News The record low bank credit growth of 5.1 per cent in FY17 was led by the top 1,000 listed corporates which saw their net loan outstanding decline by a whopping Rs 1 trillion in the reporting year, said a report. One-third of this massive contraction was led by just 10 companies, which cumulatively availed of Rs 33,571 crore less in the year over the previous year, according to the report by SBI Research. According to SBI chief economic adviser Soumya Kanti Ghosh, who penned the report, this could either be perceived as lower debt utilisation levels or prepayment through internal accruals or through asset sale. Other reasons could be QIP or private equity participation. The RBI data showed that bank credit inched up by a tad 5.1 per cent in the year to March 2017, which was the lowest since 1951 when it had grown by a paltry 1.8 per cent which could be attributed rise in bond issuance and cheaper non-bank fund sources coupled with overall credit aversion in th...

60% of BSE 500 companies have seen a drop in pledged shares Rally in the equities and gradual improvement in the stressed sectors of the economy like power and infrastructure has led to a sharp decline in the shares pledged by companies. In the   BSE   500 universe, 107 companies have reduced their pledged holding since April 2015 of which 46 have brought the pledged holding to zero, data compiled from Capitaline showed. Among these, 46 companies have brought their pledged holding to zero during the period. The data takes into account only the 178 companies in BSE 500 which have reported some pledge activity since Q4FY15. Reliance Defence, Unitech,Tata Global Beverages and GMR Infra are some of the big players who have cut down their pledged holdings during the period. On the other hand, India Cements, Tata Communications, Amar Raja Batteries and Century Plywood are among the companies that have brought down their pledged holding to zero since April, 2015, data showe...