Top headlines: Setback for Airtel & Vodafone; Haryana heads for hung House

Blow to Airtel, Voda Idea: SC rejects appeal against AGR definition

Supreme Court on Thursday rejected telecom companies’ appeal against the Union government’s definition of Adjusted Gross Revenue. The apex court will later decide on the timeframe for the operators to pay AGR. The definition of AGR has been a long standing issue between the Department of Telecommunications and the Telecom Service Providers (TSPs), in particular, on some items that the TSPs strongly believed should not be included while calculating AGR since these are not part of the core telecommunications services.

Other important stories of the day:

Haryana heads for hung assembly, BJP to retain Maharashtra

The BJP-Shiv Sena alliance was on the road to power in Maharashtra while Haryana emerged a cliffhanger with no clear majority for either the BJP or the Congress. The BJP electoral juggernaut could have slowed down in the first assembly elections since the party's triumph in the parliamentary polls this summer, the trends indicated.

Maruti Suzuki Q2 profit dips 39% YoY to Rs 1,359 crore, revenue slips 24%

India’s largest car maker Maruti Suzuki on Thursday reported a net profit of Rs 1,358.6 crore for the September quarter of FY20, down 39.4 per cent YoY from Rs 2,240.4 crore reported in Q2FY19. The profit, however, beat analysts estimates. Analysts at Prabhudas Lilladher, for instance, had pegged the profit at Rs 1,100 crore.

India rises 14 places to 63rd in global Ease of Doing Business rankings

India has risen 14 places to the 63rd spot in the World Bank's latest ease-of-doing-business global rankings in 2019, after jumping ahead by 23 and 30 places in the past two years, respectively. The World Bank’s ‘Doing Business 2020’ report, released on Thursday, showed India's rank in ease of doing business jump from the 77 place among 190 countries. India had broken into the club of 100 nations easiest to conduct business two years ago when it managed to jump 30 spots from the 130th position.

Will further simplify GST: FM

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Thursday said efforts will be made to further simplify Goods and Services Tax, and expressed hope that it will help in further improving India's ranking in the World Bank's ease of doing business index. India has jumped 14 places to rank 63rd in the World Bank's ease of doing business ranking index and the country aims to be within 50 in the next few years.
 

InterGlobe Aviation posts Rs 1,062 crore loss

IndiGo's parent InterGlobe Aviation on Thursday posted a net loss of Rs 1,062 crore for the September quarter as higher costs and mark-to-market losses took a toll on the bottom line. The company had a loss of Rs 651.5 crore in the same period a year ago. These figures are after tax.
 

Gold rises Rs 75, silver jumps Rs 110

Prices of gold went up by Rs 75 to Rs 38,945 per 10 gram in the national capital helped by a rise in festive demand and a weaker rupee, according to HDFC Securities. In the previous trade, the precious metal had closed at Rs 38,870 per 10 grams.