The department of telecommunications (DoT) is expected to announce the schedule for 5G trials in the coming few days. The DoT has already undertaken a meeting with telecom operators as well as equipment makers regarding the trials. it is very likely that after missing the 2G, 3G, and 4G bus, India is going to miss on 5G opportunities.

Flipkart has expanded its Samarth programme to small businesses and artisans based in Tamil Nadu. The e-commerce company on Thursday announced a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed with the southern state’s MSME Trade and Investment Promotion Bureau (MTIPB) to onboard local artisans, weavers, craftsmen, and small businesses of the state onto its marketplace.

The finance ministry raised concerns over State Bank of India’s plan to set up a JV with HDFC Bank Ltd. and Bank of Baroda under the central bank’s new umbrella entity (NUE) framework. The ministry is worried that it could squeeze the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI). The government doesn't want public sector banks to set up NUEs that will compete against RuPay and UPI run by NPCI.

After a gap of 75 days, Maharashtra, on Thursday reported 5,427 new COVID-19 cases, a sizable number of them coming from Akola and Nagpur divisions. Currently, the caseload in the state rose to 20,81,520 while 38 fatalities took the death toll due to the pandemic to 51,669. Lockdown has been imposed in Amravati District from 8 pm on February 19 to 7 am, owing to the rise in COVID-19 cases.

WhatsApp will display a banner on the app providing users with more information on privacy policy and terms of use update that has drawn massive criticism over concerns on data sharing with parent Facebook. The contentious policy, whose rollout date was pushed to May 15 from Feb 8, however, remains unchanged. They will offer more information on the banner so that people can read at their own pace.

DLF’s rental arm DCCDL successfully acquired a 52% stake of US-based Hines in a premium commercial project in Gurugram for Rs 780 crore. In December, DLF had informed that its JV firm DCCDL entered into a securities purchase agreement with funds managed by Hines for the acquisition of their stake in Fairleaf Real Estate, which owns and operates ‘One Horizon Center’.

IDFC First Bank on Thursday said its board approved raising up to Rs 3,000 crore through various means. The lender said there are significant opportunities for growth based on the strong capabilities it has built as well as the strong outlook for economic recovery in India. The bank will raise the fund through Qualified Institutions Placement, Follow-on Public Offering or a combination of these.

Ambuja Cements on Thursday announced an increase of 34.06% in consolidated net profit at Rs 968.24 crore for Q4'FY21, helped by volume growth. The company, which follows Jan-Decfinancial year, had clocked a net profit of Rs 722.26 crore in Oct-Dec2019. Revenue from operations was up 4.58% to Rs 7,452.87 crore during the quarter as compared to Rs 7,126.44 crore in the year-ago period.

NMDC on Thursday announced resuming mining operations at its Donimalai iron ore mine in Karnataka after receiving permission from the state government. In 2018, NMDC suspended iron ore mining following a decision of the state govt to impose 80% premium on the iron ore sales from the mine. NMDC has been in the mining iron ore business for over 6 decades, operates 3 iron ore complexes in India.

Sebi on Thursday announced the cancellation of registration of Kolar Sharex Pvt Ltd as a stockbroker for violating market norms. In a separate order, Sebi said it has also cancelled the registration certificate of Rajkumar C. Basantani as a stockbroker, who, apart from being a director of Kolar Sharex, was also a trading member of the National Stock Exchange (NSE).

Top 5 facts about bitcoins: [1] Transactions can't be reversed in bitcoins, [2] Currently, there are over 2,500 cryptocurrencies, with Bitcoin just one of them, 3] If you lose your private key (Bitcoin wallet), you lose your Bitcoins, [4] A unit of Bitcoin is called a 'Satoshi byte', [5] Bitcoin is created through mining, and the core technology behind it is called Blockchain technology.

The SC Thursday directed 17 banks and financial institutions of former Ranbaxy promoters Malvinder and Shivinder Singh to place on record the basic documents pertaining to loans for which the shares of FHL were pledged with them. The top court had earlier asked the Singh brothers to give it a plan as to how they would honour the arbitral award of Rs 3,500 crore granted by a Singapore tribunal.

DLF Cyber City Developers Limited (DCCDL), the rental arm of DLF group, has completed the acquisition of 51.8% stake in Fairleaf Real Estate for Rs 779.40 crore. The company had in December 2020 entered into a Securities Purchase Agreement with funds managed by Hines for the acquisition of their stake in Fairleaf, which owns and operates One Horizon Centre.

A tariff hike can be expected in the telecom sector soon as payment obligations by operators necessitate the need for ARPU expansion. The SC had in October 2019 mandated that telecom operators pay Rs 1,19,292 crore to the Department of Telecommunications as adjusted gross revenue (AGR) dues. Of this, Bharti Airtel’s dues are pegged at Rs 43,980 cr, while Vodafone Idea’s dues were Rs 58,254 cr.

The Rs 2,998cr L&T Finance rights issue concluded today with the issue being oversubscribed by 15%. The allotment of the equity shares in the rights issue will happen on Tuesday. It opened for subscription for its shareholders on February 1 at a fixed price of Rs 65 per share. The company had offered 17 shares to existing shareholders who held 74 shares of the company on January 22.