Flipkart fashions new front in Amazon fight

Walmart unit gets an edge as it buys ₹1,500 cr stake in ABFRL

No more scotch? India moves to ban imported goods at military shops

The Oct. 19 internal order from the defence ministry, reviewed by Reuters, said that in future, 'procurement of direct imported items shall not be undertaken'.

Take one for growth. RBI’s new MPC bats for investment revival

• The minutes of the MPC’s October meeting reveals that the government bond yield curve and what its implications are for investments found fair place in discussions, besides inflation and growth dynamics

The electoral calculus in Bihar, explained in 10 charts

Nitish Kumar is facing anti-incumbency after 15 years in power, but a committed voter base and the lack of a better option make him best-placed to win

India needs a digital backbone for efficient covid-19 vaccine distribution: Shaw

Biocon chairperson speaks about the company's Q2 results and the challenges that India will encounter in vaccine distribution

Tech Mahindra profit up 9.5% sequentially in September quarter

The firm also announced 2 strategic acquisitions—Momenton, an Australian digital enterprise tech firm offering consultancy and implementation services; and Tenzing Ltd, a New Zealand-based technology consulting company

Bajaj Auto plans a dedicated plant for electric scooter Chetak

• Delhi, Bangalore and Hyderabad are among the key locations that are being evaluated by the company
• The electric scooter is currently produced at the company’s Chakan plant, a unit that typically operates at near-100% capacity utilization round the year

Pakistan to stay on FATF grey list till February 2021

• India's nuclear-armed neighbour failed to meet the conditions needed for unfettered access to international funds
• In a statement, the FATF urged Pakistan to complete an internationally agreed action plan by February 2021

MPC members differ over growth recovery

• RBI deputy governor Michael Patra spoke about the need to exercise pragmatic caution even as some high frequency indicators indicate a sequential improvement
• Governor Shaktikanta Das, on the other hand, was more optimistic about a strong economic rebound by next year

FB grilled by parliament panel, Amazon in cross hairs over refusal to attend

• The members of JPC raised questions about data protection and data portability with the Facebook India representatives
• Amazon conveyed in a letter to the committee that most of its experts were overseas and it was difficult for them to travel at this time

Next 3 months will help determine the situation of Covid in India: Vardhan

• In the last three months, the country has seen significant improvement in the Covid parameters
• The Health Minister held a meeting ministers and other senior officials of Uttar Pradesh to review Covid-19 preparedness

GST: Centre transfers ₹6,000 crore as first tranche to 16 states, 2 UTs

• The interest rate has been fixed at 5.19%
• The tenor of borrowing will be broadly in the range of 3 to 5 years, finance ministry said

YES Bank Q2 results: Net profit at ₹129.37 crore; asset quality improves

• The bank’s gross non-performing assets (NPAs) stood at 16.30% against 17.30% a quarter ago
• The Net Interest Income increased 3.4% quarter-on-quarter to ₹1,973 crore

PM Modi to brainstorm with global oil major chiefs on Monday

• The meeting this year is expected to see participation from around 45 CEOs of major oil and gas firms
• India is exploring the possibility of storing crude oil in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve of the US

UPSC Civil Services Prelims 2020 results declared: Check here

All those who have appeared for the UPSC Prelims 2020 examination, which was conducted on 4 October this year, can now download their results online

The world will be a much safer place because... See Anand Mahindra's post

• Anand Mahindra shared a post on Twitter, showing the digital way of dealing with 'violence' along with a video
• In the video, two people can be seen talking to each other over video conferencing platforms. However, within seconds, they start yelling at each other showing slippers on the video cam

Covaxin likely to be at least 60% effective, says Bharat Biotech

• 'The efficacy results should be available by early April-May, 2021,' Sai Prasad, executive director, Bharat Biotech
• For phase III trial, the drugmkaer plans to enroll 26,0000 volunteers aged 18 years and above

Coronavirus update: Bharat Biotech aims to launch Covaxin by June 2021

• The vaccine maker to enrol 26,000 subjects for phase 3 trial starting mid-November. The trial will be conducted across 25-30 sites in the country and the process of getting ethics committee approvals of individual sites is on

5paisa.com becomes fastest Indian stock broking firm in acquiring 10 lakh users

• The platform witnessed a steep rise in the number of customers during the nationwide COVID-19 lockdown
• Our mobile-first platform is designed to meet genuine expectations of millennial and millennial across India, said Prakarsh Gagdani, CEO, 5paisa.com

Sebi levies fine on Biocon employee for violating insider trading norms

• Singh's transactions exceeded the value of ₹10 lakh on two occasions and were required to be disclosed within two days, but she failed to do so
• Sebi imposed a consolidated fine of ₹3 lakh on Singh for both the violations -- not obtaining pre-clearance and making delayed disclosures

WHO says it will have advice on remdesivir in 3-4 weeks

• A WHO panel will convene next week to look at all evidence of the effectiveness of the drug
• WHO chief scientist Soumya Swaminathan said the U.S. FDA drug regulator does not appear to have taken the results of the global health body's study into account in giving approval

India needs a sustainable healthcare system post pandemic too: AIIMS director

• Surveillance, containment and collaboration are also crucial to create a pandemic-resistant world, says Randeep Guleria
• Covid-19 has posed challenges and created opportunities for healthcare system, he says

Centre kicks off GST compensation release under special borrowing scheme

• The Centre borrowed and transferred ₹6,000 crore to 16 states and two union territories on Friday under the scheme
• Out of the 21 states that opted for the borrowing scheme, five did not have any revenue shortfall to be compensated

Covid-19 plasma therapy shows little benefit in patients in India, study finds

The study, published in the British Medical Journal (BMJ), involved 464 adults with moderate COVID-19 who were admitted to hospitals in India between April and July

New Parliament building to be ready by Oct 2022; construction to begin this Dec

The new building will also have a grand Constitution Hall to showcase India's democratic heritage, a lounge for members of Parliament, a library, multiple committee rooms, dining areas and ample parking space

New Covid-19 infections in US approach record single-day high

• There are now nearly 41,000 hospitalized coronavirus patients across the country, up 34% from Oct.
• On Thursday, there were 916 reported fatalities in the United States, a day after the country recorded over 1,200 new deaths for the first time since August

Nestle India to invest ₹2,600 crore in scaling capacity

• Nestle's profit for the September quarter stood at ₹587 crore, down 1.37% year-on-year from ₹595.27 crore
• For quarter ended 30 September, the company posted a 10.1% year-on-year jump in sales at ₹3,525 crore

Nifty ends higher but shows tentativeness around 12,000 again. What analysts say

• Nifty has hit 12,000 level on an intra-day basis thrice in the past 10 sessions but failed to close above that level

India invested deeply in success of United Nations: Jaishankar

• The external affairs minister also said that India is looking forward to beginning its eighth term as a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council
• India has been elected as a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council (UNSC) for a two-year term, beginning January 2021

Lalu coming out on bail on Nov 9, Nitish's farewell next day: Tejashwi

• Prasad is in judicial custody in Jharkhand capital Ranchi after his conviction in fodder scam cases
• Tejashwi said Bihar has a budget of ₹2.13 lakh crore and the Nitish Kumar government manages to spend just 60 per cent of it

India needs to fix domestic issues to face world with more credibility: Tharoor

• Tharoor said India must use its capacity to demand constructive changes in global governance
• Tharoor said it was important for India to come across to the rest of the world as an example of a thriving and harmonious society

Promise of 19 lakh jobs akin to ₹15 lakh in bank accounts, says Rahul in Bihar

The Congress leader alleged that PM Modi and CM Nitish Kumar broke the backbone of the farmers, and medium and small businesses in Bihar

Food security is as important as national security: Punjab FM

Manpreet Singh Badal said this at the Public Affairs Forum of India’s 7th National Forum 2020

Gold prices today struggle after sharp fall, silver rates drop

• Gold investors awaited further clarity on US coronavirus aid package
• Both gold and silver had tumbled in the previous session

Govt to sell up to 15% stake in RVNL via OFS

• The government will appoint up to three merchant bankers for managing RVNL share sale
• During the current financial year, the government has mopped up ₹6,138.48 crore through OFS and IPO of PSUs

Income tax rules, exclusions for clubbing income of minor child and spouse

If the minor child is suffering from any disability of any nature specified under Section 80U of the Income Tax Act, the income cannot be clubbed.

It may take years for India's GDP to regain lost output: RBI MPC member

'There is also an anecdotal sense that the economy’s potential output has fallen, and the post-Covid growth trajectory will look very different from what has been recorded so far,' says Michael Patra in MPC minutes

Bengaluru's infra crumbles as heavy downpour triggers waterlogging: See pics

• As intense rainfall lashed the city and its suburbs, it led to inundation in several areas
• The rains were accompanied by thunderstorms and cool breeze