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Petrol and diesel prices were reduced in metros on Saturday, February 8 - a third straight day of downward revision. While the price of petrol was lowered by 23-24 paise per litre in Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai, the rate of diesel was brought down by 25-27 paise per litre, according to data from Indian Oil Corporation. The prices of petrol and diesel have been lowered more than 3 per cent each in the four metros so far this year.

More than one lakh retailers across the country will be hit by a three-fold hike in duty, according to toy importers who went on strike on Saturday. In the Union Budget for financial year 2020-21, the government proposed to raise the import duty applicable to toys from 20 per cent to 60 per cent, saying that the step would support micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), and promote local manufacturing.Protesting against the move, the toy wholesalers of the city went on a one-day strike, contending that the import duty hike will result in the closure of businesses and a spurt…

Domestic stock markets rallied this week with benchmark indices clocking gains of nearly 4 per cent after the February 1 Budget announcements triggered their worst single-day fall in at least 17 months. The S&P BSE Sensex index registered a gain of 1,406.32 points (3.54 per cent) for the week while the broader NSE Nifty benchmark added 436.5 points (3.74 per cent). That marked the biggest weekly gain for the 30-scrip benchmark index since March 2019. Analysts say that the Budget may support the economy in the long term, even though it fell short of near-term market expectations.

US defence giant Lockheed Martin on Friday inked an agreement with the state-run Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL) to explore opportunities in the F-21 fighter jet programme.Lockheed Martin has exclusively offered its F-21 military aircraft to India, with an eye to bag the Indian Air Force's $18 billion dollar deal to procure 114 jets."Lockheed Martin signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with defence PSU BEL to explore industrial opportunities in the F-21 programme at DefExpo 2020," the company said in a statement.

The divestment of Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) by the government will not cause any problems for the company's employees, chairman MR Kumar told NDTV on Friday. There will be a reaction by the staff but the company will talk to them, said the LIC chairman, assuring that the proposed stake sale will not lead to its privatisation of the insurer. In the Union Budget for 2020-21, the government proposed to divest a part of its stake in LIC in a move that could result in the partial listing of the country's largest insurance company, which led to protests by the…

National Skill Development Corporation has announced its partnership with Salesforce, the global leader in customer relationship management. It will help to enhance NSDC’s skill development and capacity building initiatives through Salesforce’s Trailhead with free online learning platform that empowers anyone to skill up and increase one’s job prospects in the digital economy.  The explosion of technological innovation in the Fourth Industrial Revolution is creating a massive demand for new-age skills. By 2022, more than 120 million workers will need reskilling due to advances in artificial intelligence (AI) and automation. According to the World Economic Forum, on average, an Indian worker today needs about 100 days for…