The municipal corporation (MC) has issued a notice to the private firm operating their buses after its contract with Ludhiana City Bus Services Limited expired, directing them to either purchase the 82 buses for a sum of ₹5.42 crore or return them in the same condition that they received them in.

Notably, MC officials had earlier raised concerns over the deteriorating state of a substantial number of buses, justifying the issuance of the notice. The terms of the agreement now require the operator to either acquire the buses by paying the stipulated amount or return them in their original condition.

Mexico has emerged as the new hotspot for customer experience management (CXM) that enhances customer engagement across multiple touchpoints. TCS and Infosys have had a presence in Mexico for over a decade now. Recently, LTIMindtree opened a 100-seater facility in Mexico City. HCLTech, which set up operations in Mexico 14 years back, expanded its footprint in Guadalajara two years back. The company is hiring 1,300 people in the next two years to strengthen its current employee base of 2,400 people in the country. GlobalLogic, a Hitachi Group company, opened a new engineering and a sales centre in Mexico. The centres are located at Guadalajara and Mexico City.

Foreign investors have adopted a cautious approach this month, offloading domestic equities worth Rs 13,000 crore in the first three weeks owing to high valuations of Indian stocks and surging US bond yields.

In contrast, foreign investors are bullish on the debt market and injected Rs 15,647 crore in the debt market during the period under review, data with the depositories showed.

According to the data, foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) made a net withdrawal of Rs 13,047 crore in Indian equities this month (till January 19).

The S&P 500 soared to a record high close for the first time in two years on Friday, marking the start of a bull market since October 2022. The climb was led by a robust rally in chipmakers and tech giants, reflecting investor optimism around artificial intelligence and robust corporate earnings.

Chipmakers lead the charge: Chip stocks experienced a significant upswing, driven by Super Micro Computer's optimistic second-quarter profit forecast. Shares of Nvidia and Advanced Micro Devices witnessed substantial trading, pushing the Philadelphia SE Semiconductor index and the S&P 500 information technology sector index to record highs. Notably, Nvidia surged 4.2%, and AMD ascended over 7%, with Super Micro Computer's shares skyrocketing 36%.

India’s youngest airline Akasa Thursday ordered an additional 150 Boeing 737 Max aircraft worth over $20 billion at list price, making this the first such announcement at an Indian air show. With the latest deal, three desi carriers — Tata’s Air India, IndiGo and Akasa — have ordered 1,120 Boeings and Airbus (including 70 wide body by AI) planes worth $140 billion at list price in the last 11 months (since Feb 14, 2023), putting India upfront in the big league of emerging aviation powerhouses.

Union aviation minister Jyotiraditya Scindia said at the Hyderabad Air Show Thursday: “This (Akasa’s) is the first triple digit aircraft order to be signed in India. (In the last one year) there have been huge orders from Air India and IndiGo… Time is ripe for Airbus and Boeing to set up final assembly lines in India (given the orders from the country).” The over 1,100 aircraft already on order by the three airline will be delivered till the middle of next decade.