A new study has said that a 5-day course of Molnupiravir could reduce deaths and prove effective and safe at relatively lower costs, in adults and non-pregnant COVID-19 unvaccinated patients at increased risk of severity or needing hospitalization.

The study also said that the drug, as compared to others, may be more effective against the Omicron variant.

Molnupiravir is a new oral antiviral drug that has recently received emergency use authorization in several countries including India but it has not been included in the national COVID-19 treatment protocol yet.

The weighted average price of acquisition of equity shares of the Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) for the government comes out to be only Rs 0.16 per share.

This is certified by chartered accountants Batliboi & Purohit, LIC's statutory auditor for its initial public offering (IPO). The acquisition price is disclosed in the draft red herring prospectus (DRHP) filed by the country's largest insurer with the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI). 

The face value of the shares is Rs 10 per share. 

There was no share capital structure with face value in LIC as on March 2021. The paid-up equity capital of LIC was about Rs 100 crore. This capital was too low for the insurer with large amount of funds. 

Edible oil firm Ruchi Soya, which is owned by Baba Ramdev-led Patanjali Ayurveda, is likely to hit the capital market with its follow-on public offer (FPO) in the last week of this month to raise up to Rs 4,300 crore, sources said.

In August last year, the company had received capital markets regulator Sebi’s go-ahead to launch the FPO. It had filed the draft red herring prospectus (DRHP) in June 2021.

The company is coming out with a public issue to meet the Sebi norm of minimum public shareholding of 25 per cent in a listed entity.

The real estate industry welcomed RBI’s decision to keep the repo rates and reverse repo rates unchanged and also its accommodative stance in order to sustain the growth rate. The industry said that the move will help homebuyers. 

The RBI, on Thursday, held its key interest rates steady for the 10th consecutive meeting to support the economic recovery during the ongoing pandemic. The MPC unanimously voted to maintain the status quo on the repo rate and decided to retain the accommodative policy stance by a majority of 5-1.

Tata Power Company’s consolidated operating profit for the October-December quarter of 2021 fell 6.62% year- on-year (y-o-y) to Rs 1,633.76 crore as the cost of coal imported for the Mundra ultra mega power project and the power purchased for the distribution business rose substantially impacting the operational profit.

Lower realisations from the sale of power negatively impacted the operating margins as well for the December quarter of 2021 dropping 805 basis points on year to 14.97%.