Stock markets likely to gain as Sebi eases norms for FPIs

• Sebi relaxed the buyback norms for listed firms that own NBFCs and housing finance companies subsidiaries
• In commodity markets, spot gold was steady at $1,502.53

INX Media case: CBI arrests P. Chidambaram in an evening of high drama

• Congress leader resurfaces after 27 hours, says innocent but will respect the law
• CBI, whose team scaled the wall of Chidambaram's home, takes ex-FM to headquarters after medical check

Paytm says valuation rose 25% to $15 billion

• There are about 14 million merchants using Paytm services and it plans to increase the base to 24 million by the end of this fiscal
• Currently, Paytm sees 800-900 million transactions a month

INX Media case: The legal options before Chidambaram

• The anticipatory bail filed in the SC will now become infructuous since Chidambaram has been arrested
• The Supreme Court on Wednesday refused an early listing of the case despite repeated mentioning

Smartphones remain a must-buy even in overall slowdown season

• Indian consumers are cutting back on spending during the slowdown, but are loath to skimp on smartphones
• The smartphone market saw the highest-ever Q2 shipment of 36.9 mn units, registering a 9.9% yearly increase

No plans to set auto firms a deadline for shift to EVs: Gadkari

• The government will continue to promote cleaner fuels without any timeline or order to ban petrol or diesel vehicles
• NITI Aayog is working on a road map for transitioning to electric mobility

Markets decline nearly 1% on global worries

• The Sensex ended at 37,060.37, down 267.64 points, or 0.72%, while the Nifty was at 10,918.70, down 98.30 points, or 0.89%
• The extended slowdown in the domestic economy has increased the volume of stressed assets

Sebi relaxes FPI rules, share buyback norms

• New norms are outcome of the Sebi board meeting, which collapsed 57 circulars into a single one
• Sebi has decided that FPIs may be re-categorized into two categories - Categories I and II - instead of the present requirement of three categories

Maruti sees new launches, govt steps putting sales back on track

• Rollback of government plan to raise registration charges of new vehicles will boost sector, says automaker
• XL6 will be offered with BS-VI compliant petrol engines in the price range of ₹9.79 lakh to ₹11.45 lakh

Amazon opens its largest campus in the world in Hyderabad

• The new campus is the only one owned by Amazon outside the US and will house more than 15,000 employees
• The move is part of Amazon’s expansion plans in India, where retail markets are still to a large extent driven by traditional neighbourhood stores

Donald Trump does it again, says can ‘mediate’ on Kashmir

• Meanwhile, UK, France and Bangladesh maintain Kashmir remains a bilateral issue
• Trump has over the last week occupied centre stage in the latest flare-up over Kashmir

Putting a lid on dissent first of Yediyurappa’s many challenges

• Karnataka CM has to contain the simmering dissent emanating from the allocation of cabinet berths
• Many in BJP fear that 12 of the 16 vacant berths could be reserved for JD(S) and Congress rebels

Who is Rajiv Gauba?

• Gauba is currently posted as home affairs secretary
• Born in Punjab in 1958, Gauba had earlier replaced Rajiv Mehrishi as the union home secretary

Delhi Court rejects Ratul Puri’s petition to cancel NBW

• The court had said that his custodial interrogation was 'required for an effective investigation' as he was evasive in his replies during questioning
• Puri, in his application in Delhi high court had challenged the 6 August order of a special court that had dismissed his anticipatory bail application

State electricity discoms won’t get free power, says RK Singh

• By the first of August, I put in place a system by which the power gets dispatched only when a letter of credit is given
• I have already told my ministry that the objective is to utilise all the water in our share and whatever scheme needs to be set up to utilise our share of the water should be done

Donald Trump seen rallying G7 members against China at France meet

• It remains to be seen how the EU will respond to overtures of US at G7 meet, as many of them have invested in China
• Leaders from the group of seven industrialized countries will gather in Biarritz for their 45th annual meeting amid worsening fears of recession, trade frictions, and climate change

EPFO board hires SBI MF, two other AMCs as fund managers

• EPFO has reiterated its commitment to pay an interest rate of 8.65% for 2018-19 despite the reservations of the finance ministry
• The fund managers invest 85% of the EPFO money in debt investments and the remaining 15% in equity through ETFs

Supporting growth will remain RBI’s top priority, show minutes

• With inflation projected to remain stable, a further reduction in rates needs to be given priority, says Das
• There is a need for monetary policy action to support economic activity, close the output gap

India's GDP growth set to slow further in April-June quarter to 5.7%: Nomura

• India's economic growth slowed to 6.8% in 2018-19 - the slowest pace since 2014-15
• The automobile sector is facing its worst crisis in two decades

Agri families borrow more, eat less to cope with kin’s suicide: study

• Average income of farm suicide families was just ₹3,523 per month in 2016-17, below ₹4,561 estimated by NSSO: study
• The study found that 92% of farm suicide families were not enrolled under the centre’s flagship crop insurance scheme

Co-living platform Zolostays in talks to raise up to $100 mn

• Firm will use the capital to increase its inventory size and upscale furnishing options across its current inventory
• Zolostays had last raised $30 million in its Series B round in January from investors including IDFC Alternatives, Mirae Asset, and Nexus Venture Partners

Opinion | A quick guide to the rise of the incompetent leader

The key tactic of these incompetent leaders is to spread negativity about others

Mobile data price down by 95% but revenue up 2.5 times in 5 yrs: Trai

• The average cost to subscriber for wireless data in the year 2014 was ₹269 per GB and ₹226 per GB in 2015
• The data usage in the country increased by 56 folds to 46,404 million GB in 2018 from 828 million GB in 2014

'Howdy, Modi' event in Houston sold out, over 50,000 people register

• The live audience will be the largest ever for an Indian Prime Minister in North America and also the largest for a foreign leader in the US other than Pope Francis
• "Howdy", short for 'How do you do?', is a friendly greeting commonly used in southwestern United States

SBI says no plans to discontinue debit cards

• SBI is planning to establish nearly 10 lakh YONO Cash Points in the country over 18 months
• YONO is a digital banking platform of State Bank of India

Indices end in red, Nifty slips below 11,000-mark, Tata Motors down over 9%

• Shares of Information Technology remains positive as rupee strengthened
• Midcap and Smallcap indices continue to remain under pressure

The revolt against food delivery apps

Ordering in is now an indispensable part of daily life. That’s why restaurants are getting that sinking feeling

Maruti launches multi-purpose vehicle XL6 starting at ₹9.7 lakh

• XL 6 will be launched in India with a Bharat Stage 6 compliant K15 petrol engine of the company
• With the new XL 6 Maruti’s product portfolio in the utility vehicle segment will boast of three offerings

I have not been accused of any wrongdoing in INX Media case: P. Chidambaram

• Chidambaram hopes that probe agencies will respect law and await the Supreme Court's decision on his bail plea on Friday
• 'I am aghast that I was accused of hiding from the law,' says the senior Congress leader

SC to hear on Friday Chidambaram's plea seeking stay of Delhi HC order

Registrar (Judicial) informed Chidambaram's lawyer that Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi has listed the matter for hearing on Friday

ITC looks at buying stake in Coffee Day: Report

• Coffee Day is under pressure to pare borrowings
• A successful bid for Coffee Day will help ITC further diversify its business

Sebi eases requirements for FPIs

• FPIs to be recategorized into two categories from three currently
• Sebi allows offshore funds of Indian mutual funds to invest as FPIs as it approves recommendations by H.R. Khan committee on FPI norms

Zomato revises Gold scheme, but eateries to stay logged out

• A key change includes curbs on usage of the Gold scheme to one restaurant per day
• Zomato also puts a cap on the number of Gold unlocks per table, restricting it to 2

Apple plans to tap China's BOE Technology for iPhones: report

• Apple attempts to reduce its reliance on Samsung Electronics
• Apple to decide by the end of the year whether to take BOE on as a supplier of organic light-emitting displays

Drama enacted for 'voyeuristic pleasure of some': Karti on his father's arrest

• Karti dubs P. Chidamabaram's arrest as a 'politically motivated witch-hunt'
• 'This is a completely trumped up, made for television, made for media kind of spectacle,' says Karti

Hong Kong rents set to fall as protests curb housing demand

• Real estate professionals forecast rents on Hong Kong’s main island to fall 2% in the next year
• Residential rents climbed almost 8% in the two years through June, to be near a record-high

Delhi HC grants Robert Vadra 4 weeks to file rejoinder in money laundering case

• The Delhi HC grants 4 weeks to Robert Vadra to file a rejoinder to the ED's reply to his petition seeking quashing of certain provisions of the money laundering case
• The case will next be heard on November 18

Hyderabad Literary Fest venue shifted due to fear of anti-govt remarks?

• Hyderabad Public School maintains that it cannot organize the event because the dates are clashing with an event being held at the same time in January 2020
• However, a member of the HPS managing committee said some members have been unhappy over anti-government remarks being made at the event

Trump says had to ‘take China on’ regardless of short-term impact on US economy

Trump's comments came hours before his government announced approval of an $8 billion sale of Lockheed Martin F-16 fighter jets to Taiwan

Indian market yet to see return on 4G spends, believes Ookla co-founder and GM

• The reason behind the speed degradation could be capacity, spectrum, last mile connectivity or backhaul: Ookla co-founder
• Doug Suttles, co-founder and general manager, Ookla, spoke to Mint about internet speeds in India, 5G and their latest acquisitions

Indian packaged foods least healthy in world: survey

• India’s packaged foods and drinks were found to be the most energy-dense (kilojoule content 1515 kJ/100 g) in a survey of 12 countries, according to George Institute for Global Health
• According to the study, China’s drinks were some of the healthiest in the survey

Intel unveils 8 new 10th Gen mobile PC chips: Find out what's the difference

• The new processors enable up to 16% overall performance gains and over 41% better productivity and multitasking on Microsoft Office 365 compared to the previous generation
• The 10th processors range from Intel Core i3 to Intel Core i7 and feature up to 6 cores and 12 threads and up to 4.9 GHz max turbo frequency

Gaming firm Nazara acquires Sportskeeda

• Investments and acquisitions have been a key part of Nazara’s growth strategy, with bets in the past year or so including fantasy gaming platform HalaPlay, and real money quiz app Qunami
• Nazara has invested ₹44 crore for a 67% stake in the popular sports content portal, valuing it at about ₹65 crore

Govt notifies enhanced warnings, 'quitline' number for all tobacco products

• The toll-free Tobacco Quit-line Services provides counselling and strategies for quitting tobacco use
• The new warnings will come into effect on September 1

OYO to add over 3,000 employees in India over 6 months

• OYO says the development is aligned with its commitment towards investing ₹1,400 crore by the end of 2019 in India, South Asia business
• OYO is currently present across over 300 Indian cities and has over 2 lakh keys as part of its chain of more than 10,000 franchised, leased hotels in the country

Take the lump sum route in ELSS if you need your money in three years

• Market-linked instruments such as equity mutual funds are volatile and require time to grow in value
• If you need your money in three years, you can only invest now (in a one-time fashion) and not as an SIP since ELSS investments are locked for 3 years since the date of investment

Opinion | Rich… who, me?

The government is mulling a mechanism that would ensure your consent before any money is credited to your account

Cristiano Ronaldo refuses to rule out retirement in 2020

• Cristiano Ronaldo joined Juventus in 2018 from Real Madrid
• Cristiano Ronaldo helped Juventus win their eighth successive league title in 2018/19

Juventus coach Maurizio Sarri has pneumonia

• Juventus said that Sarri had been present at the club's training centre on Monday "where he coordinated the work of his staff" but did not conduct training on the pitch
• Juventus did not say whether Sarri would be able to take charge of the team at Parma on Saturday

Anil Kumble should be chairman of selectors but BCCI needs to raise pay: Sehwag

• Never to mince his words, former opener Sehwag said BCCI needs to pay more for heading the selectors' committee
• The current selection panel, led by MSK Prasad, has faced a lot of flak for it being a lightweight with a cumulative experience of 13 Tests

Sebi eases rules for ‘muni bonds’ to help smart cities raise funds

• Under the new norms, Sebi would do away with requirements like appointment of a monitoring agency, filing of viability certificate
• Sebi to also amend rules relating to accounting, auditing and disclosure of financial statements

Chidambaram gets no immediate relief in SC, Chief Justice to hear petition

• Earlier, Chidambaram’s plea for an anticipatory bail was rejected by the Delhi High Court
• Solicitor General Tushar Mehta told the bench that it is a case of money laundering of 'monumental magnitude'