EPFO in a spot after dismal CPSE ETF and Bharat 22 ETF returns

• EPFO investments in CPSE ETF and Bharat 22 ETF have yielded just 1.89% and 0.48%, respectively, as of 31 December
• EPFO has invested in CPSE ETFs in three tranches and in Bharat 22 ETF in two tranches

India to push for CNG, LNG cars till electric vehicles become affordable

• India has plans to set up 10,000 CNG distribution stations by 2030 to slash the usage of diesel and petrol
• Maruti Suzuki and Hyundai are lobbying with the government to promote CNG cars

Govt removes the devil in angel tax for startups

• Startups with sales of up to ₹100 crore—earlier, the exemption limit was ₹25 crore—would be eligible for angel tax relief
• An entity will be considered a startup for up to 10 years from the date of incorporation, up from the earlier seven years

Sachin Bansal drives in additional funding for Bhavish Aggarwal's Ola

• Flipkart co-founder Sachin Bansal total investment in Bhavish Aggarwal's Ola now stands at ₹650 crore
• Sachin Bansal as an investor gives Bhavish Aggarwal more leverage in the boardroom battle against SoftBank

Mumbai sees biggest decline in home sizes, rise in affordability

• A house in Mumbai today will cost around seven times the annual household income, against 11 times in 2010
• The size of an average Mumbai property, meanwhile, has shrunk by 24% over the same time period

What are India’s greatest and worst movies?

• Cinematic quality is tricky to measure but if user ratings on IMDb are considered, then recent releases, Aamir Khan and Rajkumar Hirani top the charts
• India’s greatest film is Anand. The 1971 film scored 8.7 from 22,168 votes and is followed by the 2013 Malayalam-hit Drishyam (8.6)

Can't share divergence report in full without RBI nod, Yes Bank says

• The confidentiality clause doesn't allow Yes Bank to provide any further details, even to stock exchanges, without RBI nod
• RBI had pulled up Yes Bank for declaring 'nil divergence', saying that isn't an achievement

Why reinsurance has attracted IRDA scrutiny

IRDA has issued an advisory to non-life insurance firms to carry out proper due diligence when they enter into reinsurance contracts through brokers

Pulwama attack: Imran Khan vows retaliation if India attacks Pakistan

• Pakistan PM Imran Khan claims there is ‘no evidence’ about his country's link to the Pulwama terror attack
• Imran Khan also says Pakistan is ready to discuss the issue of terrorism as insisted by India

Machine learning is the biggest disruptive tech: AMD CTO Mark Papermaster

• AMD CTO Mark Papermaster on the significance of the chips and shared emerging technology trends
• AMD had in January unveiled 7nm chips aimed at competing with bigger rivals Intel and Nvidia

Prestige Group plans to sell plotted projects

• Prestige Group plans to develop housing plots and sell individual office units to investors, says CEO Venkat Narayana
• Both the strategies are expected to generate quicker cash flows and attract investors for Prestige Group

Reverse Pitch for AI startups: AI and Humans working in tandem

For businesses to thrive, human intelligence and artificial intelligence (AI) will need to work in tandem

Huawei awaits govt nod for 5G trials, rollout in India

• Huawei India CEO Jay Chen says that no country has been able to give any evidence of wrongdoing on Huawei's part
• Huawei is in talks with all the major telecom operators in India for 5G rollout in India, says Chen

InnoVen Capital invests ₹35 crore in Xpressbees in fifth deal this year

• With Expressbees, InnoVen Capital has now invested ₹75 crore in 2019 across five companies
• InnoVen Capital has 4-5 more deals planned for the next couple of months, says CEO Ashish Sharma

Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas to set up India's first legal tech incubation centre

• The centre, named ‘Prarambh’, will work with young entrepreneurs to forge new tech-based solutions for the legal industry
• Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas is looking to build an ecosystem of technology and startups around traditional legal areas

Railways’ recruitment drive out of necessity or a political gimmick?

• Timing of initiative to fill 230,000 vacancies raises several questions
• Indian Railways, which has a sanctioned strength of 1,506,598, employs 1,223,622 people

Fewer Airbus A320neo planes are reporting engine snags

• In India, the biggest market for the A320neo workhorse, retrofits are 95% done

• Pratt narrowed the number of in-flight engine shutdowns in India by as much as a factor of four in January

Modi's poll math puts at risk Ratnagiri refinery with Saudi Aramco, Adnoc

• Maharashtra decides to relocate Ratnagiri refinery after stiff opposition from Shiv Sena, BJP's ally in the state
• The Ratnagiri refinery, a joint venture of Saudi Aramco, Adnoc and Indian OMCs, is crucial to meet India's oil demand

Those who have picked up guns in Kashmir will be killed: Army

• Army’s warning comes even as JeM released a new video promising to ‘conduct many more such attacks’
• At least 182 terrorists from groups including JeM, LeT, Hizbul Mujahideen have been killed in Kashmir in the past year

Do we make our resume or does our resume make us?

• With the amount of fortune and time invested in building one’s career, the resume has unequivocally become the most prized possession of our lives
• A resume, on the other hand, confines us within the boundaries of repetitive job descriptions and employer expectations

Scope of PM-Kisan may be wider than perceived

• Govt aims to reach all beneficiaries before model code of conduct comes into force
• The PM-Kisan scheme is expected to cost ₹20,000 crore in 2018-19, and ₹75,000 crore in 2019-20

A cooler green tea for the health-conscious

• Mohan believes this is a good time for companies like his to venture into the functional beverage space
• To make the green tea cooler, which aims to deliver all the benefits of green tea minus the bitter aftertaste

KCR names 10-member cabinet two months after forming govt 

• KCR’s son KTR and nephew T. Harish Rao, who was the irrigation minister in last cabinet, are not in the list
• Of the 10 new members, four ministers were members of the last cabinet, six are new faces

Bitcoin gets a boost from JPMorgan’s embrace of cryptocurrencies

• Bitcoin is approaching $4,000 for the first time since the start of the year
• JPMorgan has developed a prototype digital coin that it plans to use to speed up payments between corporate customers

Govt allows part sale of coal from captive mines in open market

• The additional premium will be over and above the final bid price

• The allottee of a coal mine for specified end use or own consumption was not permitted to sell coal in open market earlier

Cabinet approves ordinance to curb unregulated deposit schemes

• Lok Sabha had passed the Bill on the last day of the budget session by a voice-vote, but could not get the approval of the Rajya Sabha
• The Bill seeks to put in place a mechanism by which such depositors can be compensated

Congress, NCP all set to launch joint rally in Maharashtra today

• Smaller parties such as Prakash Ambedkar’s Bharipa Bahujan Mahasangh are not a part of the coalition
• Nanded is one of the only two constituencies in Maharashtra that elected a Congress candidate in 2014

Why Jet Airways is selling a majority stake for Re 1

• The complicated arrangement is on track to be voted through on February 21
• A group of lenders led by SBI has proposed taking a 50.1 percent stake for 1 rupee through the issuance of 114 million new shares

No family business for India Inc.'s next-gen

• Next-gen family members are now keen to start independent entities, and not carry forward past legacies
• With fewer members from next generation showing interest in the family business, a host of other issues also arise

Karnataka: Seat sharing turning into a muddy affair between JD(S)-Congress

• Kumaraswamy says the JD(S) is not a beggar to take whatever the Congress gives them as part of its pre-poll agreement
• The Congress is hoping to retain all its 10 parliamentary seats it currently holds, while JD(S) has set its eyes on seats that fall in south Karnataka

Fortis fraud may exceed ₹2,000 crore, says SFIO

• Six firms linked to Singh brothers were used to divert Fortis funds to Gurinder Singh Dhillon and Sanjay Godhwani
• Malvinder Singh claimed his brother Shivinder connived with Dhillon to sell these firms to RHC Holdings

GST Council meeting tomorrow, relief for home buyers likely

• GST rate on under-construction properties may be reduced to 5% without input tax credit
• Finance minister Arun Jaitley will chair the 33rd GST Council meeting tomorrow

Companies embrace new norm that splits CMD posts

• Reliance Industries, HCL Technologies, Wipro and JSW Steel are among the firms that haven't yet split the CMD post
• A third of the firms that have not complied with the rule so far are public sector enterprises or state-run banks

Can ESG funds change the way business is done?

• ESG funds invest in companies that conduct their business in a fair and ethical manner
• ESG funds also account for environmental sustainability of a company before investing

IFC plans debt investment of $75 million in Manappuram Finance

• IFC’s three-year loan will provide Manappuram Finance liquidity and support asset-liability management
• Manappuram Finance will be International Finance Corporation's (IFC's) first gold loan-focused investment

Global trade growth will continue to slide in 2019, says WTO

• The WTO in September said it expects world merchandise trade growth will slow to 3.7% this year from 3.9% in 2018
• The estimates could be revised downward if trade conditions continue to deteriorate: WTO

Don't bundle your FD, life insurance and SIP needs in one instrument

• If you are a risk-averse investor looking for an FD, it is a good idea to stick to simple deposits
• An important factor to keep in mind is that bundled products are from group companies of the bank itself

Is Alexa recording your bedroom talk?

• Privacy threat is very much real, with more and more Indians being hooked to the always-on and Internet-connected smart home devices
•  You can delete all voice recordings associated with your account for each of your Alexa-enabled products

Is the education loan burden worth that course abroad?

• Whether or not you can afford to study abroad is a decision that can change the course of your future financial life
• The percentage of defaults on education loans rose to about 9% as of March 2018 from 7.3% in March 2016

Govt reverts back to old system of awarding oil and gas blocks

• The trigger for such a sharing has been fixed at $2.5 billion in a financial year from the block

• Exploration blocks in Category II and III basins will be awarded purely based on the exploration work programme

Opinion | Will Mohammed bin Salman come up with a strong response on Pulwama?

India cannot expect Saudi Arabia to shame Pakistan by name in the Pulwama attack. But New Delhi will be looking for strong wording in a joint statement against terrorism

Emami shares jump 15% after promoters sell stake to pare debt

• The purchasers included SBI Mutual Fund, L&T Mutual Fund, IDFC and PremjiInvest
• The stake will help reduce promoter debt

Musk-like or not, this 36-year-old CEO has Amazon riding shotgun

• Rivian had another seminal moment on Friday, when it announced a $700 million funding round led by Amazon.com
• Scaringe also is in talks with General Motors Co. on some kind of partnership with the largest US automaker, as well

BSNL employees to intensify strike

• The employees are on a three-day strike that started on February 18
• When contacted AUAB Convenor P Abhimanyu said the union is against disrupting services provided to customers, including banks

Govt clears ₹30,274 cr Delhi-Ghaziabad-Meerut Regional Rapid Transport System

• Meerut and Ghaziabad are in Uttar Pradesh
• The Cabinet has approved construction of Regional Rapid Transit System (RRTS) covering a distance of 82.15 kilometres

BJP clinches pre-poll alliance with AIADMK, PMK in Tamil Nadu

• Out of the 39 Lok Sabha seats in Tamil Nadu, the BJP to contest five seats and the AIADMK 27
• This is the first time the BJP is having an official pre-poll alliance with one of the two major Dravidian parties

Jaypee Infra's promoter makes second attempt to settle dues  

• The latest offer comes close on the heels of NBCC and Suraksha group putting in bids for Jaypee Infratech
• In April last year, JAL made an unsolicited offer of around ₹10,000 crore to settle dues of Jaypee Infratech

Karl Lagerfeld, who ruled Chanel design for decades, dead at 85

• German fashion designer Karl Lagerfeld helped set the luxury industry standard for five decades
• Karl Lagerfeld was among fashion’s most prolific couturiers, producing outfits for Chanel, Fendi and his own label

DGFT provided resources to revamp IT infrastructure

• Prabhu said an efficient and cost-effective logistics framework would provide huge business opportunities
• Prabhu also launched the 'Safar' app on logistics that would access ground-level feedback from transporters and iron out the delays 

US markets gain on earnings; bonds rise, dollar falls

• The S&P 500 Index rose 0.2% as of 12:39pm New York time
• The MSCI All-Country World Index rose 0.2%. The MSCI Emerging Market Index gained 0.1%

India rejects Pakistan PM Imran Khan's response to Pulwama terror attack

• India says not surprised by Pakistan PM Imran Khan's refusal to acknowledge the Pulwama attack as an act of terrorism
• Disclaiming links with terrorist attacks is an oft-repeated excuse by Pakistan, says India

Telangana’s fiscal deficit looks ‘stressed’: N.K. Singh

• 15th Finance Commission chairman N.K. Singh lauds the state for its growth trajectory and major irrigation projects
• Singh also says a roadmap was required to address the Telangana’s fiscal deficit

Saab proposes to make 96 Gripen jets in India to win Air Force deal

• Saab is expected to face competition from rivals such as Boeing Co, Lockheed Martin Corp and Dassault Aviation

• The cities of Bengaluru and Hyderabad would be the "natural choice" for any plant

Centre hikes DA by 3%, to benefit 1.1 crore govt employees, pensioners

• The hike will benefit about 48.41 lakh central government employees and 62.03 lakh pensioners
•  The increase is based on the recommendations of the Seventh Central Pay Commission

ESIC okays super speciality treatment for workers with 6-month contributions

• The decision to reduce the contributions by employers and employees towards ESI was taken in the last board meeting of ESIC

• The ESIC protects employees against the impact of incidences of sickness, maternity, disablement and death due to employment injury