Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Thursday authorised the release of ₹47,541 crore advance instalment of tax devolution to states, which is in addition to the regular devolution for January this year.

“This is in line with the commitment of Government of India to strengthen the hands of states to accelerate their capital and developmental expenditure to ameliorate the deleterious effects of Covid-19 pandemic,” a finance ministry statement said.

Thus, states would receive a total of ₹95,082 crore or double their respective entitlement during the month of January 2022, it said. The Central government released the first advance instalment of tax devolution to states amounting to ₹47,541 crore on November 22, 2021.

Domestic markets mirror global peers and settled deep in the red on Wednesday. S&P BSE Sensex ended 656 points to 1.08% lower at 60,098 while the broader NSE Nifty 50 closed 174 points or 0.96% in red at 17,938. Bank Nifty was down 0.44%. State Bank of India was the top Sensex gainer, up 1.83%, followed by Bajaj Auto, Tata Steel, and Maruti Suzuki India. Infosys was down 2,77% as the top laggard, followed by Asian Paints, Nestle India, and Hindustan Unilever. Broader markets closed with losses except smallcap indices that witnessed some buying. India VIX closed at 17.82 levels.

“Nifty fell for the second consecutive session but ended a little above the intraday low. The advance-decline ratio is below 1:1 but better than the previous day. If western markets stabilise today, we could see a better opening on Jan 20. 18081-17813 is the band for the nifty in the near term.”

Reliance Industries (RIL) has picked up a majority stake in robotics start-up Addverb Technologies for $132 million (approx. Rs 984 crore) as the energy-to-telecom conglomerate looks to automate its businesses.

Addverb has developed highly automated warehouses for RIL, Flipkart, HUL, Asian Paints, Coca-Cola, Pepsi, ITC, and Marico. With this investment, RIL will hold around 54 per cent stake in Addverb, becoming a strategic partner.

The Noida-based start-up had earlier raised around $11 million in Series A and pre-series funding round led by Jalaj Dani, co-promoter of Asian Paints, taking its total funding since inception to $143 million.

This funding round will accelerate the company’s expansion in Europe and the US and enable it to set up a large robotic manufacturing facility.

Stemming confidence from the success of its sturdy cars like Tata Nexon and Harrier, Tata is now all set to expand its range even further with ­six new SUVs that are lined to be launched in the coming years. From Tata Blackbird which is a premium compact SUV to an enhanced version of the sub-compact SUV Tata Nexon, reports suggest that Tata is aiming to capture the SUV market as more and more people in India get inclined towards compact SUVs.

The Tata Blackbird is likely to be a premium mid-sized Coupe SUV which will share its X1 platform with the Nexon compact SUV. Apart from the similar platform, the BlackBird’s front profile and some body panels are also expected to be inspired by Nexon. However, Tata will give it a longer body to make it fit in the cope profile.

According to the police, hundreds of villagers in the Nagina area have lost the hard-earned money they had deposited with `Al Faizan Muslim Fund Ltd`, a facility privately owned by one Mohammad Faizi for Muslims to keep their money in a "secured manner".

So far, 170 police complaints have been filed and the police are in the process of ascertaining the extent of loss to the depositors.

The institution had been running for five years in Nagina`s Mohalla Lal Sarai.

The accused, Faizi, had also employed some agents to get more customers in the villages.