Top news this week: Scrapping of electoral bonds, Paytm saga, Adani firms ratings improved and more

Here are top news of the week between 11 February and 17 February that made headlines:

Axe falls on electoral bonds; disclosures coming soon

The Supreme Court (SC) on Thursday brought the axe down on the electoral bonds scheme and ordered publication of its transaction details, ending the controversial model touted as a way to clean up campaign finance but criticized for its secrecy. Read more

RBI extends Paytm Payments Bank transaction curb deadline to 15 March

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Friday extended by 15 days the deadline for stopping deposit transactions at Paytm Payments Bank, part of One 97 Communications that runs the digital payments firm Paytm. Customers now have time till 15 March to deposit money into their accounts, wallets, FASTags, and prepaid cards. Read more

Farmers’ Delhi march gathers at Haryana border

Thousands of farmers from Punjab headed for the national capital in tractors, SUVs and farm vehicles clashed with the Haryana police at the Shambhu border, where they were met with teargas, water cannons and rubber bullets. The farmers had begun their march on Tuesday morning, after the previous evening’s meeting with central ministers to press for legally guaranteed minimum support prices (MSP) for their crops failed to yield results. Read more

Leaving Hindenburg behind, Moody's upgrades four Adani firms

US-headquartered ratings firm Moody's upgraded the outlook of two green energy firms and two electricity generation and distribution firms of the Adani Group following improved financials, timely debt repayments and a capital infusion by the group over the past year. Read more

EY conducting forensic audit of Bandhan Bank loans worth ₹23,000 crore

Big Four accounting firm EY is conducting a forensic audit on a portion of Bandhan Bank’s loan book backed by government guarantees, two people aware of the development said. Read more

Paytm shifts nodal account to Axis Bank, Soundbox to continue to work

One97 Communications, on Friday, announced that Paytm has shifted its nodal account to Axis Bank (by opening an Escrow Account), the company said in an exchange filing. Read more

Adani Realty wins bid for ₹30,000 crore Bandra Reclamation redevelopment

Adani Realty has secured the contract to redevelop the 24-acre Bandra Reclamation land parcel, put up by the Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation (MSRDC). Read more

‘No restrictions on Congress using bank accounts’

There is no restriction on the Indian National Congress (INC) using any of its bank accounts, but the alleged income tax dues of ₹115 crore attached by the tax department will be transferred to the exchequer as per the procedure followed in the case of any citizen defaulting on tax dues, a person informed about the working of the tax department said on Friday. Read more

Hyundai seeks expansion, higher valuation with India IPO

Hyundai Motor's planned $3 billion IPO in India will help the carmaker score two goals in one go: expand in one of the world's fastest growing markets and tackle the so-called "Korea discount" that suppresses the value of its business back home. Read more

Infosys McCamish cyber incident in October led to data breach at BofA

A cybersecurity attack at Infosys McCamish in October 2023 led to a data breach, affecting 57,028 Bank of America (BofA) customers, Mint has learnt. The incident was detected on 29 October 2023, as per BoFA. Infosys Ltd, parent of Infosys McCamish, notified the stock exchanges about the development on 3 November. Read more

Reddit signs content licensing deal with AI company ahead of IPO

Reddit has signed a contract allowing an Artificial Intelligence (AI) company to train its models on the social media platform's content, Bloomberg News reported. Read more

Instacart to cut 250 jobs as slowing ad business counters upbeat Q1 forecast

Instacart forecast on Tuesday that its first-quarter gross transaction value (GTV) and core profit were above estimates due to an uptick in grocery orders, and said it plans to cut 250 jobs, or 7 percent of its workforce, to focus on "promising" initiatives. Read more

Coal India inks pact with Haryana for power supply from Mahanadi Basin Power

State-run Coal India Ltd on Thursday signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Haryana Power Purchase Centre for supply of 800 megawatt (MW) of electricity from Mahanadi Basin Power Ltd. Read more

Funding in Karnataka, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu tech startups plummet in 2023: Report

Tracxn Geo Annual Report revealed that Karnataka Tech startup ecosystem saw a total funding of $3.4 billion in 2023, which is a 72% plunge from the $12.2 billion raised in 2022. Read more

Nike slashes workforce by 2% to tackle increasing competition

Nike Inc. will slash its global workforce by about 2% as the sportswear giant pushes on with efforts to reduce costs to counter a weaker sales outlook and growing competition. Read more

Jeff Bezos sells $2 billion worth of Amazon shares in latest stock dump

Jeff Bezos has unloaded another 12 million shares of Amazon.com Inc. valued at $2 billion, bringing the total sold in the past week to more than $6 billion. Read more

Vedanta promoters offload 1.76% stake via bulk deal

Promoters of mining and resources major Vedanta Ltd offloaded 1.76% stake in the company for ₹1,737 crore on Thursday through a bulk deal on BSE, data show. Read more

FIIs offload ₹6,240.5 crore in Indian equities this week, DIIs turn net buyers

Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) continue to be net sellers in Indian markets even as domestic equity benchmarks Sensex and Nifty 50 settled one per cent higher on the week as investors shifted their focus to fundamentals and macroeconomic indicators. Read more

Qatar releases ex-Navy personnel

Indian Navy veterans who had been put on death row on charges of espionage on behalf of Israel in Qatar were released and they returned to Indian in the early hours on Monday. The Congress expressed relief and happiness at Qatar releasing eight former Indian naval personnel nearly three and a half months after they were handed down death sentences. Read more

OpenAI unveils Sora that makes instant videos from written texts

In another breakthrough into generative artificial intelligence, the maker of ChatGPT has unveiled a new tool that can instantly make short videos in response to written commands. Read more