New Delhi, Aug 14 (IANS) Australia’s seam-bowling all-rounder Marcus Stoinis has backed private investment to happen in the eight Big Bash League (BBL) teams, saying the model brought in by Indian Premier League (IPL) franchises could benefit Australian cricket. At the same time, he added that his focus is firm on playing in next year’s T20 World Cup.This year, owners of IPL franchises Mumbai Indians, Lucknow Super Giants, Sunrisers Hyderabad and Delhi Capitals bought investment stakes in Th…

Mumbai, Aug 14 (IANS) The teaser of the upcoming Bengali language film ‘Raktabeej 2’ was unveiled on Thursday. It promises a gripping mix of high-voltage drama, edge-of-the-seat action, and an unexpected twist about Munir Alam, believed to have died in the first film, being alive in the sequel. The film is helmed by the director duo Nandita Roy and Shiboprosad Mukherjee, and boasts a stellar ensemble including Victor Banerjee, Seema Biswas, Abir Chatterjee, Mimi Chakraborty, Koushani Mukherj…

Mumbai, Aug 14 (IANS) Ashok Leyland on Thursday reported a sharp sequential drop in its consolidated net profit for the April–June quarter (Q1 FY26), with earnings falling 47.21 per cent to Rs 657.72 crore from Rs 1,245.92 crore in the previous quarter (Q4 FY25). Revenue from operations also declined 20.32 per cent to Rs 11,708.54 crore, compared to Rs 14,695.55 crore in Q4 FY25, according to its stock exchange filing.The company’s total income fell in line with revenue to Rs 11,807.2 crore,…

Mumbai, Aug 14 (IANS) Even as foreign institutional investors (FII) continue to sell Indian equities, the stock markets are holding strong due to significant buying from domestic institutional investors (DIIs) and retail investors.The secondary market outflows by FIIs in 2025 saw the highest level of foreign selling in India’s markets to date. However, domestic institutional investors (DIIs) have pumped in over Rs 4 lakh crore into the Indian stock market this year, the largest inflow by this ca…

New Delhi, Aug 14 (IANS) HDFC Bank on Wednesday clarified that the bank has not raised the Average Monthly Balance (AMB) for savings accounts, denying reports suggesting that new account holders in metro or urban branches would need to maintain an average AMB of Rs 25,000.”There has been no change in the Average Monthly Balance (AMB) requirement for any account type,” the private sector lender said in a statement.The bank said the AMB for the regular saving accounts and ‘saving max accounts’ con…

Mumbai, Aug 14 (IANS) Global Information Technology (IT) major Cognizant announced that around 80 per cent of its eligible employees will receive a salary hike from November. The company indicated that the hike will be in a “single high digit” (7 to 9 per cent) of the employees’ current salary. During its second-quarter earnings, the company had indicated plans to award merit-based pay rises to the vast majority of staff in the second half of 2025.“Cognizant today said that approximately 80 pe…

New Delhi, Aug 14 (IANS) The fall in India’s wholesale inflation will boost domestic demand despite global economic uncertainties, industry body PHDCCI said on Thursday. The provisional annual inflation rate based on the Wholesale Price Index (WPI) eased to (-) 0.58 per cent in July compared to the same month previous year, led by a sharp drop in the prices of food articles and crude petroleum.PHDCCI President Hemant Jain said that food prices have been consistently softening since February, w…

Moscow, Aug 14 (IANS) The eruption of Klyuchevskoy Volcano, located in Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula, has ended, leaving behind a new scoria cone in its crater, said the Institute of Volcanology and Seismology of the Far Eastern Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences on its Telegram channel.Klyuchevskoy, standing at 4,754 meters above sea level and situated around 30 km from the village of Klyuchi, is one of Eurasia’s most active volcanoes. The eruption, which began on July 30, followed a stro…

Sydney, Aug 14 (IANS) Almost half of Australian internet users were the victim of a cybercrime in the last 12 months, a government report published on Thursday said.The report, which was compiled by the Australian Institute of Criminology (AIC) based on surveys of over 10,000 internet users, found that 47.4 per cent of respondents said they had been a victim of a cybercrime in the preceding 12 months.Almost two-thirds of respondents, 63.9 per cent, said they had been a victim of at least one cyb…

Seoul, Aug 14 (IANS) South Korea’s President Lee Jae Myung on Thursday vowed to address long-standing grievances of Korean women forced into sexual slavery for the old Japanese army during World War II, saying that he would spare no efforts to restore the victims’ “honour and dignity.”According to historians, up to 200,000 women, mostly Koreans, were coerced into sexual servitude in front-line Japanese brothels during the war, when the Korean Peninsula was a Japanese colony. Those sex slaves wer…