Vedanta Group's Hindustan Zinc Ltd (HZL) announced on Thursday that both BSE and NSE have imposed fines of Rs 5.37 lakh each on the company due to non-compliance with SEBI regulations regarding the required number of independent directors on its board.

In a filing, HZL acknowledged receiving notices from BSE and NSE, dated August 21, 2024, indicating penalties for violating Regulation 17(1) of the SEBI Listing Regulations concerning board composition. The company stated that it is actively engaging with the Ministry of Mines to address and fulfil the compliance requirements.

Further, the requirement of the woman independent director on the company’s board has already been fulfilled, it said.

At present, there are three independent directors on the company’s board.

Zomato will acquire Paytm's entertainment ticketing business for Rs 2,048 crore, the online food delivery platform and the fintech firm announced on Wednesday, August 21. The acquisition will help Zomato spruce up its "going-out" segment, while the beleaguered fintech firm will sharpen its focus on core payments and financial services distribution.

The sale agreement includes movies, sports, and events (live performances) ticketing business on a cash-free, debt-free basis, with the boards of both Zomato and One 97 Communications Ltd (OCL) approving the deal.

"As part of this agreement, OCL will transfer its entertainment ticketing business to Zomato by 1) Transfer of OCL’s entertainment ticketing business to it’s 100% subsidiaries, Orbgen Technologies Pvt Limited (OTPL) and Wasteland Entertainment Pvt Ltd (WEPL), and 2) Selling 100% stake in its subsidiaries OTPL and WEPL, which operate the TicketNew and Insider platforms, respectively to Zomato. The transfer will also include ~280 existing employees from the entertainment ticketing business," the Paytm said in an exchange filing.

Actor Mohammed Zeeshan Ayyub and "Maidaan", starring Ajay Devgn, were among the winners at the 2024 edition of the Septimius Awards in the Netherlands.

Zeeshan was named the best Asian actor for his work on the 2023 crime drama series "Scoop" and director Amit Ravindernath Sharma's sports drama "Maidaan" was adjudged the best Asian film at the ceremony, held between August 19-20 at Amsterdam's Tuschinski Theatre.

For his portrayal of Imran Siddiqui, the principled editor of a newspaper organisation in "Scoop", Zeeshan had received a lot of praise from the audience.

Hansal Mehta, director of "Scoop", congratulated the actor on his win at the Septimius Awards, billed as a "strong supporter of new talent and visionary ideas".

India has overtaken China as the world's largest importer of Russian oil. According to a Reuters report, Indian imports of Russian crude surged to a record 2.07 million barrels per day (bpd) in July, marking a 4.2% increase from June and a 12% rise year-on-year. This surge has pushed Russian oil to account for a historic 44% of India's total oil imports for the month.

Chinese refiners, facing lower profit margins from fuel production, reduced their purchases, leading to India's new position. In July, China's imports from Russia fell to 1.76 million bpd, as per Reuters citing Chinese customs data. As Western sanctions on Russia continue, Indian refiners have capitalised on discounted Russian oil, with a significant increase in imports of ESPO Blend crude. This variety of crude saw imports to India jump to 188,000 bpd in July, facilitated by larger Suezmax vessels.

IT industry body national association of software services companies (nasscom) on Wednesday announced the appointment of Rajesh Nambiar as its president-designate.

Nambiar, who resigned as chairman and managing director of Cognizant India, succeeds Debjani Ghosh at nasscom, who completes her tenure in November 2024.

“This is truly an exciting time for the industry, as we focus on the accelerated transition to AI-first companies, making talent our greatest competitive advantage, driving growth, and increasing investments in IP creation and R&D. I am both privileged and honoured to take on this opportunity to collaborate with all stakeholders to enhance the Indian tech sector’s capabilities,” said Nambiar.

Wrestling was an obvious choice for Ronak Dahiya in his formative years. His father Jaibir Dahiya was a wrestler who later forayed into coaching and refereeing. While it was no brainer for the son to pursue wrestling, he was not given the liberty to choose a style as Jaibir wanted his son to wrestle in both — Greco-Roman and freestyle. Reason — both styles complement each other and Greco-Roman wrestling makes one a better freestyle grappler.

After pursuing wrestling in both categories for over a decade, Ronak, who turned 18 on August 19, can now finally pick up a style of his choice. And he most likely capped off his stint in GR with a bronze medal in the ongoing U17 World Championships in Amman, Jordan. Already a silver medallist in the event last year, the result might not be as per his expectations but a podium finish at the Worlds is no mean feat. "I will say a few things didn't go his way but anyway a medal is a medal and I am happy with it," Jaibir told this daily.

Walmart backed fintech firm PhonePe on Thursday launched Credit Line on UPI on its platform to enable consumers availing credit lines from their banks to seamlessly link them to UPI on PhonePe for merchant payments.

The feature will enable consumers to purchase with ease across millions of merchants and avail the flexibility of short-term credit that helps them manage their monthly expenses better.

“This is the second offering that will unlock the potential of credit usage on UPI, following the tremendous success of Rupay Credit Cards on UPI. We believe digital payments in India is growing strength to strength and PhonePe is committed to providing the most innovative and best-in-class solutions to our customers,” said Deep Agrawal, Head of Payments at PhonePe.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) expanded the scope of UPI to include pre-approved credit lines, which allows users to avail credit lines through banks and use them through their UPI apps.

Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu on Sunday launched the Mukhyamantri Bal Paushtik Aahar Yojana to provide nutritious food to children in government-run schools. Launching the initiative in Hamirpur, he said it would complement the existing midday meal scheme and was targeted at students from nursery to Class 8 in 15,181 schools.

Under the scheme, schoolchildren will be provided boiled eggs or fruits once a week.

"Currently, about 5,34,293 (5.34 lakh) children are benefitting from the midday meal scheme. They will now receive additional nutrition under the new initiative," Sukhu said.

Delhi airport has become the country's first airport to get the net zero carbon emission status under the Airport Council International's accreditation programme, DIAL said on Wednesday.

GMR Group-led DIAL is the operator of the Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGIA) in the national capital.

Initially, the airport targeted to achieve net zero carbon emission by 2030, and the target has been achieved well ahead of schedule through various initiatives, including the adoption of renewable energy, development of green airport infrastructures and promotion of electric vehicles, it said in a release.

DIAL said IGIA has become the first airport in India to successfully achieve Net Zero Carbon Emission Airport status under the Airport Council International's (ACI) Airport Carbon Accreditation (ACA) programme.

Kerala Infrastructure and Technology for Education (KITE), the largest IT grouping of schoolchildren in the country, will launch the new free and open source software-based (FOSS) operating system (OS) suite KITE GNU Linux 22.04 here on Friday (August 23, 2024) when a two-day State-level camp for Little Kites is inaugurated.

A total of 130 selected from among 1,200 students, who attended the district-level Little KITEs camp will participate in the programme organised at the KITE Regional Resource Centre, Edappally.

K. Anvar Sadath, CEO, KITE, said the new operating system, an updated 80.04 version, can be used in three lakh computers in public schools in Kerala. Minister for General Education V. Sivankutty will launch the new OS suit.