Author: NNI Editor
Image used for representative purpose only. | Photo Credit: Reuters India’s service sector activity, as measured by the HSBC Flash India Composite Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI), rose to 60.6 in February, up from 57.7 in January 2025, according to a statement from HSBC. This marks the fastest growth in six months. The HSBC Flash PMI reflects private sector activity before the final reading is published, based on a sample that includes about three-quarters of the total companies surveyed for the final reading. A value above 50 indicates expansion.The rise in private sector activity was driven by a Flash services PMI…
Projects worth over ₹10 lakh crore were roped in by the government of Karnataka at the recently-concluded Global Investors’ Meet 2025 in Bengaluru. | Photo Credit: File photo Karnataka government has officially commenced rollout of projects worth over ₹10 lakh crore that were roped in at the recently-concluded Global Investors’ Meet 2025 in Bengaluru.To start with, senior officials of Emvee Energy, a manufacturer of solar photovoltaic panels and modules, which committed an investment of ₹15,000 crore in a phased manner to set up a plant in Karnataka, met Large and Medium Industries Minister M.B Patil on February 20.According to the Minister,…
From the Sensex pack, Mahindra & Mahindra, Kotak Mahindra Bank, UltraTech Cement, Tata Motors, ICICI Bank, Infosys, Maruti and Sun Pharma were among the biggest laggards. File | Photo Credit: Special arrangement Equity benchmark indices Sensex and Nifty declined in early trade on Friday (February 21, 2025) amid foreign fund outflows, weak U.S. markets and tariff threats.The 30-share BSE benchmark Sensex declined 202.21 points to 75,533.75 in early trade. The NSE Nifty dipped 63.5 points to 22,849.65. From the Sensex pack, Mahindra & Mahindra, Kotak Mahindra Bank, UltraTech Cement, Tata Motors, ICICI Bank, Infosys, Maruti and Sun Pharma were among the…
Image used for representative purpose only. | Photo Credit: Reuters The rupee appreciated 14 paise to 86.50 against the U.S. dollar in early trade on Friday (February 21, 2025), fuelled by the broad weakening of the US dollar, which faced downward pressure from lackluster economic data.Forex traders said rupee is expected to trade with a slight negative bias on weak domestic equities and foreign fund outflows. However, overall weakness in crude oil prices may cushion sharp downside.At the interbank foreign exchange, the rupee opened at 86.50 against the greenback, up 14 paise from its previous close.On Thursday, the rupee appreciated…
Representational image of Kotak Mahindra Bank branch in New Delhi | Photo Credit: Reuters S&P Global upgraded Kotak Mahindra Bank’s credit rating to ‘BBB’ from ‘BBB-’ on Friday (February 21, 2025) after the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) recently lifted operational curbs.“We believe Kotak Mahindra Bank is well positioned for growth over the next 24 months. This is after India’s central bank lifted restrictions on the bank onboarding new customers or issuing fresh credit cards. “We have therefore removed the negative comparable rating analysis adjustment under our comparative rating analysis on the private sector bank. This leads to a higher…
COIMBATOREVijayan Srinivasan of Eco Dynaamic in Coimbatore is into the manufacturing of electric three-wheelers for more than a decade and has sold over 4,000 vehicles that are operated within the premises of the buyers. It is only in 2022 that Tamil Nadu came out with a policy for electric three-wheelers and there are a lot of challenges even now in getting approval for commercial sale of e-rickshaws, he says.Manikandan Palanimuthu, Chief Executive Officer of Greenerg Mobility Solutions, is one of the few electric vehicle (EV) startups in Coimbatore that has raised funds and develops displays for electric vehicles. Its additional…
K.T.M. Udayanga Hemapala, Secretary to the Ministry of Energy, Sri Lanka. | Photo Credit: Meera Srinivasan Colombo is not seeking to renegotiate the contentious renewable energy project with Adani Green, a top Sri Lankan official said, a week after the company abruptly pulled out of a wind farm initiative in the island’s Northern Province. Adani Green — which had pledged an investment of $ 442 million in wind power plants in Mannar and Pooneryn — informed Sri Lanka’s Board of Investment [BOI] in a letter dated February 12,2025, that it would “respectfully withdraw” from the project, even as the government…
Thomas Cook, SOTC Travel, Fairfax Digital Services, LTIMindtree and Voicing. AI have collaborated to build a multi-modal, multi-lingual, agentic voice-enabled, GenAI advisor ‘Dhruv‘, touted to be India’s first.‘Dhruv’ would be a combination of the domain expertise of Thomas Cook and SOTC in the travel industry, the technological prowess of LTIMindtree, powered by Voicing.AI, and brought by the global innovation capabilities of Fairfax Digital Services (a Fairfax company).‘Dhruv’, that has the multilingual capability for over 20 languages including Hindi, Marathi, Tamil, Telugu, Spanish, German, Greek and Portuguese among others, is expected to harnesses cutting-edge AI-driven technologies and Large Language Models (LLMs) to…
Fulcrum Digital, which is into enterprise Artificial Intelligence (AI) and digital transformation, said it would scale up its AI ecosystem to 10,000 AI agents this year from the current 170 , to power next-generation enterprise automation globally. As part of its expansion plans, the company said it would double its workforce to 3,000 employees to continue AI innovation and growth. The company, which completed 25 years of operations said AI was soon evolving into Unified Intelligence (UI) and further to Intelligence Amplification (IA) to enhance human decision-making rather than replacing it. The company said it was now setting the stage for the…
Getting a front-end manufacturing foothold in the U.S. appears to be the way out for India’s generic drugmakers in the event of U.S. levying tariff on pharmaceuticals, a top executive of a well-known pharma company has said.“Need to buy a front-end manufacturing [facility] in the U.S. That’s the only way you can go forward,” Natco Pharma’s vice-chairman and CEO Rajeev Nannapaneni said replying to a query around the evolving tariff scenario in the U.S., during an investor call recently. That appears to be the only solution, he said, adding if the tariffs materialise that would have a bearing on the…