Top headlines: Tatas back in the Air India cockpit, TCS PAT rises 14% in Q2

In a first major privatisation move in over 2 decades, national carrier Air India was sold to Tata Group at an enterprise value of Rs 18,000 crore. The Maharaja will return to the Tatas after 68 years

More on this and other top headlines of the day

Air India returns to Tatas after group puts in winning bid of Rs 18,000 cr

More than three years after it failed to get even a single bid for Air India, the government on Friday announced the sale of the national carrier to the salt-to-software conglomerate Tata Group at an enterprise value of Rs 18,000 crore. This is the first major privatisation step in about two decades.

With this, Air India will return to the Tatas after 68 years. Along with the brand and the slots of the debt-ridden state-owned airline, the Tatas will get the low-cost subsidiary Air India Express and a 50 per cent stake in ground handling firm AISATS. Read more

TCS Q2 results: Consolidated PAT rises 14% to Rs 9,624 cr, revenue up 17%

Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), India’s largest IT services player, missed the Street’s estimates marginally as it reported 14.1 per cent growth year-on-year (YoY) in net profit and 16.8 per cent YoY rise in revenue in the second quarter (Q2) of financial year 2021-22 (FY22),

Its management, however, chose to focus on other news concerning the group, expressing delight at the announcement that Tata Sons had been chosen as the winning bidder for Air India. Read more

RBI begins policy normalisation; maintains status quo on rates

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Friday kept its policy rates and stance unchanged, but decisively moved to withdraw excess liquidity from the system through its least disruptive liquidity management tool.

The six-member monetary policy committee (MPC), headed by RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das, voted unanimously to keep the repo rate at 4 per cent and the reverse repo rate at 3.35 per cent. Read more

CEA Subramanian to leave finance ministry, will return to academia

In a surprise development, Chief Economic Advisor Krishnamurthy Subramanian on Friday announced his resignation. Subramanian, whose tenure is ending on December 6, said he would return to academics. He will remain in office till the end of his term. Read more

Expert panel allows adolescent trials of J&J vaccine with riders

The subject expert committee (SEC) advising the Central Drugs Stan­dard Control Orga­nisation (CDSCO) has allowed US pharma major Johnson & Johnson (J&J) to conduct clinical trials on adolescents for its two-dose Covid-19 vaccine, albeit with some conditions.

The firm had on August 17 sought approval from the CDSCO to conduct trials on children aged 12-17 years. Read more