The government on Thursday moved to bury the ghost of retrospective taxation by seeking to amend the law, a move that is expected to end vexatious litigation with 17 companies, including Vodafone and Cairn, apart from addressing criticism about uncertainty of policy regime in the country.

The amendments, moved by finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman, seek to empower the government to withdraw its demand in the cases pertaining to transactions that took place before May 28, 2012 (when the President cleared the Finance Act allowing for retrospective taxation), and to refund money that has been collected in some instances. It, however, comes with the rider that the companies will have to withdraw all cases and not demand interest on the money being refunded.

SBI reported its highest quarterly net profit of Rs 6,504 crore for the three months ended June 2021, an increase of 55% over Rs 4,189 crore in the year-ago period.

The increase was on the back of a 24% jump in non-interest income to Rs 11,803 crore from Rs 9,497 crore in the previous year, which included a Rs 1,692-crore recovery from Kingfisher Airlines. SBI chairman Dinesh Khara said that the bank does not see the exposure to Vodafone Idea as stressed. However, the bank was taking steps to insulate the balance sheet from any possible threat.

Indian Immunologicals Limited is likely to start supply of an additional 2 million doses of Covaxin from August-September, whereas Bharat Biotech’s Ankleshwar facility is likely to add 6 million doses over next few months, the government said on Tuesday, adding it is hopeful of achieving the roadmap given for 135 crore doses between August-December.

Bharat Biotech is currently supplying around 2 crore doses of Covaxin per month, which is projected to increase to around 2.5 crore doses in August. Covaxin supplies faced a slowdown as its new manufacturing facility in Bengaluru with a large-scale fermentation plant facing initial glitches during standardisation of first few batches in June-July, resulting in delays in ramping up supplies.

Johnson & Johnson has withdrawn its application seeking permission to conduct clinical trials in India for its single-shot Covid-19 vaccine as under the revised policy it can seek an accelerated approval for emergency use and do clinical trials later, an official said. “J&J is yet to submit an application seeking emergency use authorisation,” the official said.

J&J had sought approval in April to conduct a bridging clinical study of its vaccine candidate in India. With an aim to increase availability of jabs and enable faster access to foreign-made Covid vaccines, the government had done away with bridging trial studies prior to grant of emergency authorisation for shots approved by recognised regulators like US FDA or UK’s MHRA.

Adani Group, which has presence in ports, airports, power, gas distribution, among others, is all set to foray into petrochemicals business.

Adani Enterprises, the flagship company of the Group, announced that it has incorporated a wholly-owned subsidiary, Adani Petrochemicals Limited (APL), on July 30.

APL, which is yet to commence business operations, has a authorised and paid-up share capital of Rs 1 lakh, Adani Enterprises said in an exchange filing. The company is incorporated in India and registered with the Registrar of Companies, Gujarat.