Business News at 05:30 pm on 20th March, 2024

Let’s begin – West Bengal-based Jupiter Wagons on Wednesday announced that its board of directors have approved the acquisition of 94.25 per cent stake in Bonatrans India Private Limited for a cash consideration of Rs 271 crore. “We wish to inform that the Board of Directors of the company, at its meeting held today i.e. 20th March, 2024 has considered and approved the acquisition of Bonatrans India Private Limited, which shall eventually become the subsidiary company upon completion of acquisition,” the company said in a regulatory filing. The indicative time period for completion of the acquisition, it said, is 30 days. The acquisition is aimed at meeting the captive requirement of the Jupiter Wagons Limited and to cater evolving demand in the domestic and export market. Jupiter Wagons manufactures all types of railway wagons and accessories.
Meanwhile – Truecaller, the Swedish caller identification app, has rolled out an update for its premium subscribers on the Android platform. This update empowers users to block all incoming calls that are not from approved contacts or identified as spam by its artificial intelligence technology. With the latest ‘Max’ update, even calls not listed in Truecaller’s database are automatically blocked if recognised as spam, as reported by TechCrunch. Previously, the app relied solely on its database for blocking or implementing restrictive measures. In a bid to improve its filtering capabilities and attract more premium subscribers, Truecaller aims to address the growing nuisance of spam calls and scams. The premium subscription, starting at Rs 75 per month or Rs 529 per year in India, offers enhanced features including spam call blocking.
In another development – Radisson Hotel Group on Wednesday announced that it has appointed Nikhil Sharma as the Managing Director and Area Senior Vice President for South Asia, effective April 1, 2024. In his new role, Nikhil Sharma will lead Radisson Hotel Group’s operations in the South Asia region, which boasts over 165 hotels in operation and development. “He brings a wealth of experience and will play a pivotal role in strengthening the Group’s leadership in the Indian market, nurturing relationships with its valued partners, driving revenue growth, and ensuring operational excellence,” the company said. Nikhil Sharma will join Radisson Hotel Group from Wyndham Hotels & Resorts where he served as Market Managing Director Eurasia, overseeing business development, operations, new openings, and sales & marketing.
Now news related to blockchain – Zeeve, a blockchain Infrastructure-as-a-Service platform, has launched a tool, called Traceye, for indexing of blockchain ledger and smart contract data. According to an official release, Traceye will support blockchain protocols, appchains, and rollups with indexer nodes. For developers and businesses to spend less time managing self-hosted infrastructure while indexing and decoding raw blockchain data, Traceye is understood to be leveraging open-source data indexing protocols such as the Graph network and Subquery. Reportedly, Traceye can cater to blockchain ecosystems such as EVM, Substrate, and Cosmos SDK Chains through these offerings including appchains and rollups. It’s believed that public networks such as Ethereum, Polygon, BSC, Gnosis, Fantom, Optimism, Avalanche, Arbitrum, among others, have default support on Traceye.
In a separate development – In an effort to solidify its presence in the Indian aviation sector, Akasa Air has entered into a 15-year long-term partnership with Canadian aerospace company CAE. The collaboration entails CAE providing Boeing 737 Max training for Akasa Air’s pilots at advanced facilities within India. According to the release issued on Tuesday, Akasa Air will leverage CAE’s training facilities, trainers and latest-generation full-flight simulators for a significant amount of time. This move underscores CAE’s commitment to supporting Akasa Air’s growth trajectory and ensuring the highest standards of pilot training. CAE has been instrumental in training Akasa Air’s pilots since its inception in 2022. CAE is in alignment with the airline’s vision for excellence in aviation operations.
Now news related to MG Motor India – SAIC Motor and JSW Group have announced the business roadmap for their new strategic Joint Venture – JSW MG Motor India. The new joint venture will capitalise on the significant opportunities emerging in the fast-evolving Indian automotive sector. JSW MG Motor India is committed to bringing in the best of innovation across its business operations, introducing world-class technology, strengthening the manufacturing landscape, generating significant employment opportunities and offering smart and sustainable products focused on customer-centricity. The business roadmap for the company focuses on extensive localisation and development of a robust automotive ecosystem across the country.
The benchmark equity indices closed in positive territory on March 20. The NSE Nifty 50 closed 22 points or 0.10 per cent higher to settle at 21,839.10, while the BSE Sensex advanced 90 points or 0.12 per cent to finish at 72,100. However, the broader indices closed in the red, with midcap stocks closing in negative.Nifty Midcap 100 lost 0.01 per cent to close at 45,919.90.