After Jio's purported allegations that channel partners of rival telcos were inciting and provoking agitators involved in tower disruption, Airtel has shot-off a letter to the telecom department slamming the charges as baseless and outrageous. Airtel has told the Department of Telecom that Jio's allegations against it did not demonstrate any evidence that Bharti had any hand in this ongoing issue.

The Department of Promotions of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) asked the RBI and Enforcement Directorate to take “necessary actions” against e-commerce giants Amazon and Flipkart for allegedly flouting Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA) rules and India’s foreign direct investment (FDI) policy. Amazon had earlier denied these allegations, emphasising that they comply with FDI laws.

Investors are enthusiastic about QuantumScape, developer of an electric-vehicle battery that promises more power for less cost. If the company succeeds, Tesla could face new challenges. One of the wildest plotlines in the great 2020 electric-vehicle rally was the late-year rise of the firm. Though QuantumScape is yet to report any revenue, it shares are soaring since it went public in November.

Over 50% of mobile recharges in India were completed online in 2020 as people refrained from moving out of their homes due to the coronavirus pandemic and the trend is likely to continue, according to a report by The Economic Times. For the first time, Bharti Airtel in 2020 saw 50% of its recharge revenue coming from online and digital platforms.

After touching a record 2 Bn transactions in October 2020, UPI has now recorded 2.23 Bn in December 2020, a slight growth from 2.21 Bn in November last year, as per the latest data released by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI). Overall, the UPI platform processed transactions worth over INR 4.16 Lakh Cr in December 2020, compared to over INR 3.9 Lakh Cr in the previous month.

Gold prices edged higher to settle at Rs 50,244 per 10 gram on January 1 as participants trimmed their position as seen by the open interest. The precious metal ended the week with a gain of Rs 171 or 0.34 percent for the week. The yellow metal has kept range-bound trading during the week on lack of important economic data and mixed global cues.

The move by the NYSE, which will limit US investor access, follows global index providers MSCI Inc, S&P Dow Jones Indices and FTSE Russell and Nasdaq deleting various Chinese companies from their indexes. The NYSE initiated this process of delisting securities of three Chinese telecom companies, after President Donald Trump last month barred US investments in Chinese firms.

Normally, this quarter is seasonally weak for technology companies due to furloughs. However, this year brokerages believe there will be an aberration to this trend. "We expect IT companies to report healthy revenue growth in this quarter led by lower furloughs, improvement in demand post Covid-19 and ramp up of deals won in the previous quarters," says Devang Bhatt, Research Analyst, ICICI Sec.

Tech company Amazon recently revealed that it has signed a deal to acquire podcast production firm Wondery. As per Mashable, the blog states that this new deal is a pivotal moment for the e-commerce giant to boost its Amazon Music expansion by offering a lot more services beyond music. Amazon said this move will help people "to find, discover, and listen to the creators and artists they enjoy".

The country’s exports declined marginally by 0.8% to $26.89 billion in December 2020, due to contraction in sectors like petroleum, leather and marine products, according to preliminary data released by the commerce ministry on Saturday. The trade deficit in December widened to $15.71 billion, as imports grew by 7.6% to $42.6 billion. The exports in December 2019 stood at $27.11 billion.

The Labour Ministry on January 1 published its draft standing orders on work from home for the mining, manufacturing and service sectors, under the new Industrial Relations Code. It is aimed at formalising service-related matters in an amicable manner. Under the model standing orders drafted for the services sector, decision on work hours for employees in the IT sector is left to employees.

Members of the OPEC group of oil producers and their partners will meet via videoconference on Monday to decide on production levels for February, hoping to turn the corner on a difficult year. The OPEC+ ministerial meeting comes after oil consumption tanked in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic and a price war between Saudi Arabia and Russia.

Facebook Inc's chief of advertising integrity, who handled the company's ad products around sensitive subjects such as politics and coronavirus misinformation, departed this week, according to an internal company post viewed by Reuters on Friday. Rob Leathern, director of product management, said earlier this month on Facebook's internal network that he would be leaving the company on Dec. 30.

TVS Motor Company sales grew by 17.5% registering 272,084 units in December 2020 as against 231,571 units in the month of December 2019. Total two-wheelers sales grew by 20% recording 258,239 units in December 2020 as against 215,619 units in December 2019. Domestic two-wheeler sales grew by 13% registering 176,912 units in December 2020 as against 157,244 units in December 2019.

German vaccine maker BioNTech, whose COVID-19 vaccine with partner Pfizer has received approvals in multiple countries, has warned of gaps in supply until other vaccine candidates are rolled out. BioNTech CEO and co-founder Ugur Sahin said the company is working with Pfizer to boost production of its vaccine after it was slow to arrive in Europe, Reuters reported.