Power Finance Corp. Ltd (PFC) has completed the purchase of a controlling stake in state-run peer REC Ltd that will create an $80-billion lending giant by assets and potentially help in faster resolution of stressed assets in India’s power sector.

PFC paid ₹14,500 crore to the Union government to buy a 52.63% stake in REC, the company’s chairman and managing director Rajeev Sharma said on Thursday.

The proceeds from the REC stake sale have also helped the union government exceed its disinvestment target of ₹80,000 crore for the fiscal year 2018-19. The disinvestment receipts touched ₹85,000 crore last week.

PFC plans to complete the process of the merger with REC in the next fiscal year in consultation with the government. This would make PFC India’s second largest state-owned financial firm by market capitalization after State Bank of India (SBI).

While SBI commanded a market cap of ₹2.84 trillion on Thursday, REC and PFC achieved a market cap of ₹29,485.53 crore and ₹31,034.16 crore, respectively.

India and Bolivia have signed eight MoUs on the second day of President Ram Nath Kovind’s three-day visit to that country.

These MoUs were signed in the fields of culture, Visa waiver arrangement for diplomats, the exchange between diplomatic academies, mining, space, traditional medicine, establishment of Centre of Excellence in IT and Bi-Oceanic Railway project.
Mr Kovind was also conferred with the highest State honour of Bolivia, “Condor de Los Andes en el Grado de Gran Collar” during his visit to Bolivia. President of Bolivia Evo Morales awarded him the Honour at a function held in Santa Cruz.

President Ram Nath Kovind had extensive talks with his Bolivian counterpart today. During the delegation level talks, a range of areas of mutual interest in bilateral, regional and multilateral fields have been discussed.

Both countries have reaffirmed their commitment to strengthen political and economic engagement. India offered 100 million US Dollar Line of Credit to Bolivia for financing development projects. Both countries also agreed on the need for reform of the UN Security Council to make it reflective of contemporary realities.

President is in Bolivia on the second leg of his three nation tour. He is on a three-nation visit to Croatia, Bolivia and Chile from March 25th to April 4th.

IT services major Wipro on Thursday said it has partnered with IIT Kharagpur to collaborate on industry-focused applied research in the areas of 5G and artificial intelligence (AI).

Research outcomes from this partnership will be leveraged by Wipro to develop solutions for its customers, across industry verticals, Wipro said in a statement.

Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kharagpur on the other hand will benefit from the commercialisation of the joint research insights and Wipro's industry expertise.

"Wipro and IIT Kharagpur will jointly take up applied research projects on industry challenges related to the design, planning and operations of 5G networks and cognitive information processing for the automation of these processes and 5G use cases," the statement said.

Shares of Adani Ports rallied more than 3 percent intraday on March 28 after the company became the first Indian port operator to record 200 Million Metric Tons (MMT) cargo movement.

"Our projections were to reach this milestone by 2020 but we could achieve it ahead of schedule courtesy the tech-driven operational efficiency and enhanced asset utilisation. Robust capacity addition at our leading ports such as Dhamra and Mundra as well as deepening presence closer the hinterland with new facilities such as Ennore and Kattupalli played a critical role in this journey," Karan Adani, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) said in a BSE release.

The multi-port operator has a portfolio of eight ports/terminals across India. The company now wants to double the cargo handling to 400 MMT by 2025.

At 1252 hours, the stock was quoting at Rs 377.55, up 3.24 percent on the BSE.

Nobel Prize-winning economist Amartya Sen has been awarded the prestigious Bodley Medal, the highest honour bestowed by the University of Oxford's world-famous Bodleian Libraries. The Medal is awarded to individuals who have made outstanding contributions to the fields in which the Bodleian is active, including literature, culture, science and communication.

"The honour was awarded (to Sen) during the Founder's Lunch on 15 March, an annual event commemorating the birth of the Libraries' founder, Sir Thomas Bodley, and his legacy of philanthropy," the Library said in a statement on Wednesday.

The 85-year-old winner of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences, who is the Thomas W Lamont University Professor at Harvard University and a member of faculty at Harvard Law School, received the Medal from Lord Patten of Barnes, Chancellor of the University of Oxford, and Bodley's Librarian Richard Ovenden.

This year's other winner of the Bodley Medal is Nobel Prize-winning novelist Kazuo Ishiguro, who will hold an in-conversation event with Ovenden next week to celebrate the honour. Past winners of the honour include physicist Stephen Hawking, novelist Hilary Mantel and inventor of the World Wide Web Tim Berners-Lee.

The government has decided to infuse Rs 5,042 crore into state-owned Bank of Baroda (BoB) ahead of merger of two other public sector lenders Dena Bank and Vijaya Bank with BoB. The merger of Dena Bank and Vijaya Bank with BoB would be effective from April 1.

The finance ministry through its notification on Wednesday conveyed its decision to infuse capital of Rs 5,042 crore in BoB, the bank said in a regulatory filing.

"The capital infusion will be by way of preferential allotment of equity shares (special securities/bonds) of the bank during FY2018-19, as government's investment," it said.

According to the Scheme of Amalgamation, shareholders of Vijaya Bank will get 402 equity shares of BoB for every 1,000 shares held.

President Ram Nath Kovind reached Bolivia today on the second leg of his three nations tour. President of Bolivia Evo Morales welcomed Mr. Kovind at Viru Viru International Airport, Santa Cruz. 

"President Ram Nath Kovind was accorded Guard of Honour at the Airport. He was also presented with the key of the city of Santa Cruz. Shri Kovind is the first President of India to visit Bolivia. 

Addressing media at the Santa Cruz Airport, President said that this is the historic day in the Indo- Bolivia bilateral relations. 

During his three day visit to Bolivia, President will hold delegation level talks with his counterpart. He will participate in India-Bolivia business forum meeting and also interact with the students at the University in Santa Cruz.

Indian sports stars Rishabh Pant, Bajrang Punia, Rani Rampal and Manu Bhaker were presented the Delhi Sports Journalists Association Best Sportspersons awards by the Indian Olympic Association President Narinder Batra on Thursday.

Speaking after the award ceremony, Pant said that the media plays a role in supporting junior cricketers. He said, “I can never forget how many Delhi sports journalists encouraged me from my early days.”

Tarak Sinha, who guided Rishabh Pant in his early days, received the Best Coach Award. Pant shared a photo of the same on his Instagram account.

The Executive Board of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) has recommended adding breakdancing, skateboarding, sport climbing and surfing to the 2024 Paris Olympic Games when the full membership meets in June.

IOC President Thomas Bach said at a news conference in Switzerland that making the Olympics more affordable and responsive has been a key aim for the committee.

He said, the addition of these four sports to the Paris medal program offer the opportunity to connect with the young generation.

All four sports will be assessed in terms of how they are managed, the integrity of competitions and judging, before being finalized for Paris. 

President Ram Nath Kovind has said, the recent changes in India have been hugely transformational for the country's economic growth and upliftment of society.

He was addressing the students at the University of Zagreb in Croatia on Wednesday evening.

The President said, a New India is in the making, an India that is aspirational and globally connected; that is impacting the global economy; that is willing to lead international efforts to find solutions to challenges like Climate Change and building a new global architecture to deal with terrorism.

Mr Kovind is in Croatia on the first leg of his three-nation visit. He will leave for Bolivia this afternoon, and will later head to Chile.