The owners of the Serum Institute of India, the Poonawalla family, have announced a £50 million (Rs 500 crore) donation to Oxford University to build a new research centre focused on vaccinology.

The donation from Serum Life Sciences, wholly owned by the Poonawalla family, is Oxford university’s largest ever gift for vaccines research. It will be used to create a new facility to house more than 300 research scientists in the Old Road Campus.

Named the Poonawalla Vaccines Research Building, it will house the headquarters and main laboratory space of the Jenner Institute where the Oxford University/AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine was developed, as well as other leading Oxford teams such as those developing a malaria vaccine.

A World Trade Organization panel ruled in favour of Brazil, Australia and Guatemala on Tuesday in their trade disputes with India over sugar subsidies and asked New Delhi to conform with global rules.

In the cases brought before the WTO in 2019, the rival producers alleged that India had broken WTO rules by providing excessive domestic support and export subsidies for sugar and sugarcane.

"We recommend that India bring its WTO-inconsistent measures into conformity with its obligations under the Agreement on Agriculture and the SCM (Subsidies and Countervailing Measures) Agreement," the panel said.

The government on Monday provided a list of 36 public sector companies that the finance ministry has decided “in-principle” to disinvest and privatise.

“The Shipping Corporation of India, various Units of India Tourism Development Corporation, Hindustan Antibiotics, Bengal Chemicals & Pharmaceuticals, Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd, Alloy Steel Plant, Durgapur; Salem Steel Plant; Bhadrawati Steel Plant - units of Steel Authority of India Limited, IDBI Bank, among the list of 36 PSUs that the government has furnished in Lok Sabha.

Minister of state for finance Bhagwat Kishanrao Karad said in a written reply to the House that, “the government, since 2016, has given ‘in-principle’ approval for strategic disinvestment of 36 CPSEs and/or Subsidiaries/ Units/ Joint Ventures of CPSEs and Banks, a list of which is annexed. The execution and outcome of disinvestment transactions inter alia depends on the prevailing market conditions and bidders’ interest.”

Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries Ltd. (RIL), along with a partner, are among the companies which have bid to take over bankrupt textile firm Sintex Industries Ltd., the latter said in a stock exchange filing on Sunday.

RIL is partnering with Assets Care & Reconstruction Enterprises Ltd. to bid for Sintex Industries under a court-designated bankruptcy resolution process. 

Other bidders include GHCL Ltd. Easygo Textiles Pvt., and Himatsingka Ventures Pvt., which is working with Shrikant Himatsingka and Dinesh Kumar. 

Shares of Star Health and Allied Insurance Co, backed by ace investor Rakesh Jhunjhunwala, recovered after a weak stock market debut on Friday with the stock surging to a day's high of ₹940 per share on the BSE. Star Health shares were trading near its issue price of ₹900 in afternoon deals on its first day.

As one of the promoters of the company, the ‘Big Bull' who has over 14% stake in the private health insurer, as per its RHP, has made a profit of over ₹6,000 crore as the stock hit a high of ₹940 intraday. His average cost of acquisition was at ₹156 per equity share, Star Health's prospectus further showed.