New Delhi [India], Apr 28 : Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has asserted that in order to ensure consumers avail all benefits of the Goods and Services Tax (GST), it is important to take crucial decisions to make India an 'increasingly tax compliant society'.

Speaking at the annual session of the Confederation of Indian Industry ( CII) here on Friday, Jaitley while highlighting the importance of the GST, stated that the Constitution amendment Bill for the same was passed unanimously in Parliament.

"In the 14 meetings of the GST Council held till date, we have not gone for vote once. All decisions were taken unanimously," he said.

New Delhi [India], Apr 28 : According to a report published by the Deutsche Bank, the government has two more years to're-energise' the economy, re-start the investment cycle and accelerate job growth.

May 25, 2017 marks the completion of three years of governance under Prime Minister Narendra Modi, but despite several new policies, investment growth in the country continues to be stagnant, leaving a similar impact on economic growth and job creation in the country.

"With urban employment growth stalling over the past few quarters due to slowing investments in e-commerce/internet startups and Indian IT services demand, job creation is likely to take on critical status on the government's economic agenda as the government enters the last two years of its term," says the report.

New Delhi [India], Apr 28 : Digital payment platform FreeCharge on Thursday announced the launch of coupons on its e-wallet to enhance user engagement and reactivation.

Through this initiative users can now benefit from every recharge and bill payment they make on FreeCharge and can select coupons worth the same amount that effectively leads to equivalent savings.

The company tied up with prominent brands across all categories including food, shopping, travel, ticketing and entertainment to provide the users with array of options.

New Delhi [India], Apr 27 : Multiplex chain PVR Ltd. on Wednesday signed an agreement with IMAX Corporation to add five more IMAX theatres in the Indian market. Through this rollout, PVR cinemas will reach a count of 10 IMAX screens and retain its position as the largest IMAX partner in India.

The new IMAX theatres, which are planned to be located in Delhi and other major metropolitan markets and will comprise a combination of new and existing PVR cinemas, are slated to begin opening this year, with all theatres expected to launch by the end of 2019.

New Delhi [India], Apr 27 : According to the real estate advisory firm PropTiger.com's findings, the real estate sector in India witnessed a revival after demonetisation, with sales increasing by 13 percent as compared to 22 percent fall in the previous quarter across top nine cities of India.

A subsidiary of Elara Technologies Pte Ltd., which also owns Housing.com and Makaan.com, the firm on Wednesday released the findings of the ' Realty Decoded Report ' for the January-March quarter of financial year 2016-17 (Q4, FY17).

New Delhi [India], Apr 27 : UTStarcom India Telecom Pvt. Ltd., a global telecommunications infrastructure provider on Wednesday announced its plan to increase its investment in India at the 'Next Gen Innovation Summit 2017- and Beyond', an event organised by UTStarcom Inc.

"We have been committed to the Indian communications industry and have been making the required investments in India. The company would be increasing its investment in India so as to further consolidate its presence in the Indian telecom infrastructure market," said Tim Ti, Chief Executive Officer, UTStarcom Inc.

The company would be making investments in setting up its local manufacturing and R&D. Further investments will be used in increasing its equipment portfolio and scaling up its manpower in India.

New Delhi [India], Apr 27 : Aiming to deliver more long-term and impactful changes to Search, Google on Wednesday announced key updates to its algorithms and introduced additional features to address the challenges with locating relevant from the most reliable sources available.

Google has made structural changes in Search that include improvements in ranking, easier ways for people to provide direct feedback, and greater transparency around how Search works.

To help prevent the spread of offensive or misleading content that has been known to surface in a small subset of queries, Google has improved its evaluation methods and made algorithmic updates that surface more authoritative content.

New Delhi [India], Apr 27 : Tata Motors have announced readiness of SCR (Selective Catalytic Reduction) and EGR (Exhaust Gas Recirculation) technologies for BSIV compliant engines, powering its range of commercial vehicles.

EGR technology adopted by Tata Motors in 2010 will continue to power small-to-medium category of commercial vehicles with engine power requirements up to 180HP.

EGR helps to reduce NOx emissions from the engine. Additionally, Tata Motors has adopted the globally proven SCR technology since 2014 for its Medium and Heavy-Duty Commercial vehicles ranging from 130HP to 400HP.

New Delhi [India], Apr 26 : Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Wednesday asserted that that the Centre has no plans to impose any tax on agriculture income, while acknowledging that as per the Constitutional Allocation of Powers, the central government has no jurisdiction to impose tax on agricultural income.

"I have read the paragraph in Niti Ayog Report entitled 'Income tax on agriculture income'. To obviate any confusion on the subject, I categorically state that the Central Government has no plan to impose any tax on agriculture income," said Jaitley.

However, NITI Aayog member Bibek Debroy made strong case for taxing agriculture income, an opinion contrary to the government's stated position.

New Delhi [India], Apr 26 : The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Wednesday imposed monetary penalty on the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Ltd. and the Kotak Mahindra Bank for violation of instructions on reporting requirements of FEMA 1999.

The central bank penalised The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Ltd. for Rs. 70,000 and the Kotak Mahindra Bank for Rs. 10,000 in exercise of powers vested in the RBI.

As per the provisions under section 11(3) of FEMA 1999, the bank is required to take into account the violations of the instructions/directions/guidelines issued by the RBI.

The RBI had issued a show cause notice to the banks, in response to which the banks submitted a written reply and also made oral submissions thereon.

New Delhi [India], Apr 26 : The market on Wednesday witnessed a surge in the Indian rupee in its initial gains and breached the 64 mark against the US dollar.

The rupee was trading at 63.99 a dollar, the highest level since August 10, 2015.

Earlier, it opened higher by seven paise at 64.19 per dollar today versus 64.26 Tuesday.

As per the market analysts, the rupee can breach the stiff resistance of 64.20/dollar and may head higher. Expectations are high that the spot of USD-INR pair will trade in a range of 64-64.40/dollar in the days' trade. (ANI)

New Delhi [India], Apr 26 : Online recruitment marketplace AasaanJobs has announced phenomenal business growth of over 40 percent in its overall business via its mobile application, which helps thousands of candidates across India to find the right job based on their skills and requirements.

Mobile traffic on the platform saw significant growth in the last two quarters; with 500,000+ sessions in Q3, and over 700,000+ sessions in Q4 driven by increase in smartphone usage across the country.

This significant milestone has managed to strengthen AasaanJobs position as a leading recruitment platform in India.

New Delhi [India], Apr 26 : Siemens Healthineers has announced successful installation of India's first fully automated Aptio Automation track with multidiscipline modalities at the Aspira Pathlab and Diagnostic Limited, Mumbai.

The company aims to help healthcare providers worldwide to meet their current challenges and to excel in their respective environments using products and solutions that increase efficiency and reduce costs.

The new track will enable Aspira to perform all routine hematology, biochemistry and immunoassay tests with a comprehensive selection of pre- and post-analytical modules that automate sample loading, preparation and handling so as to free laboratory staff from time-consuming, low-value tasks.

New Delhi [India], Apr 25 : According to credit-rating body ICRA, the growth of the renewable energy (RE) sector was driven by the large capacity additions in the wind and solar power segments.

The RE sector in FY2017 reported a record capacity addition of over 11 GW, an increase of around 60 percent over 7.1 GW reported in FY2016, as per the provisional figures by the Ministry of New & Renewable Energy (MNRE).

"The capacity addition in wind energy was much better than our expectations due to a bunching up of commissioning in March 2017. This was due to the removal of the generation-based incentive (GBI) benefit and reduction in accelerated depreciation (AD) benefit with effect from April 1, 2017," said Sabyasachi Majumdar, Senior Vice President and Group Head, ICRA.

Washington D.C. [USA], Apr 25 : In the past, scientists typically avoided linking individual weather events to climate change, citing the challenges of teasing apart human influence from the natural variability of the weather. But that is changing.

"Over the past decade, there's been an explosion of research, to the point that we are seeing results released within a few weeks of a major event," said Diffenbaugh, who is also the Kimmelman Family Senior Fellow at the Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment.

In a new study, published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Diffenbaugh and a group of current and former Stanford colleagues outline a four-step "framework" for testing whether global warming has contributed to record-setting weather events.

New Delhi [India], Apr 25 : Aiming to strengthen its engineering footprint in Eastern Europe, IT major Infosys Ltd. on Monday announced the opening of its first office and delivery center (DC) in Karlovac, Croatia.

In line with the company's strategy to establish global competency centers, offer the best talent in the market and make it available to customers globally, this DC also marks its expansion into Eastern Europe's heavy engineering sector. The new facility will meet near-shoring requirements, support engineering clients worldwide as well as offer R&D services.

New Delhi [India], Apr 24 : Accenture on Monday announced the launch of its new platform for automated, analytics-driven software testing, after successfully completing pilots with 10 clients around the world.

The company's 'Touchless Testing Platform' brings together leading open source, commercial and Accenture proprietary tools and algorithms to automate a robust, touch-less testing process for software - all guided by artificial intelligence and analytics.

It allows testing teams to easily integrate tools from leading players such as Conformiq, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Intel Saffron, Sauce Labs, Tableau, Tricentis and Worksoft, along with key Accenture innovations, to bring new enterprise software solutions to market faster and with higher quality.

New Delhi [India], Apr 24 : Taxi aggregator Ola on Monday announced the launch of 'Ola Partners League' - a unique virtual cricket game for its driver partners.

The four week-long contest will see Ola driver partners score runs by completing simple tasks and redeeming them against exciting prizes such as cars, TVs, laptops and scholarships in leading cricket academies for children of driver partners.

Kick starting today, OPL is open to all Ola driver partners across Bangalore, Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai, Kolkata, Hyderabad, and Pune, and will be LIVE till 20th May, 2017. Popular Indian all-rounder cricketer, Irfan Pathan and famous TV personality Mandira Bedi have been roped in to be the ambassadors to cheer and promote the OPL among driver partners.

New Delhi [India], Apr 24 : L&T Technology Services Limited, a leading global pure play engineering services provider, announced the development of Smart City and Campus solutions that will be used to develop a smart office campus in Israel for a leading technology company - a result of its expanded partnership with Microsoft.

The smart office campus being developed by the firms will use IoT- enabled sensors and predictive analytics. L&T Technology Services' smart buildings i-BEMS platform will provide energy saving technology and cloud-based asset management that complement Microsoft's Digital User Experience design solutions.

Cotton on MCX settled down -0.75% at 21110 on profit booking after prices gained as the arrivals in the domestic market slow down in April. India's cotton imports during the current crop year (Oct-Sep) may jump 36% on strong rupee and poor quality of domestic cotton. Import of the fibre is expected to rise to 3 million bales in 2016-17 compared to 2.2 million bales cotton imported during 2015-16. Comparatively poor quality of domestic cotton is also responsible for increased imports despite higher output. The Cotton Advisory Board