Telecommunications giant Ericsson on Wednesday said it has been awarded a multi-billion, 4G and 5G extension deal by Bharti Airtel for its India operations.

As part of the multi-year deal for 4G and 5G RAN products and solutions, Ericsson will deploy centralised RAN and Open RAN-ready solutions for network transformation, which will help customers with wider coverage and the enhanced capacity on the network.

Ericsson will also undertake the software upgrade of its current deployed 4G radios thereby enhancing the customer experience, it said in a statement.

“This deployment will enable us to further improve the speed, reliability, and coverage of our network, ensuring an exceptional experience for our customers,” said Randeep Sekhon, CTO, Bharti Airtel.

Despite the foreign institutional investors (FIIs) continue to sell equities, domestic institutional investors (DIIs) inflows are keeping the market afloat, Motilal Oswal Financial Services Ltd (MOFSL) said in a note on Wednesday.

FIIs sold equities worth $13 billion in October and November. The correction has cooled off the valuations in large-caps, even as mid/ smallcaps trade at expensive multiples.

In November, DIIs recorded inflows of $5.3 billion. In contrast, FIIs recorded the second consecutive month of outflows at $2.2 billion.

FII outflows into Indian equities stand at $2.1 billion in CY24 year-to-date (YTD) compared to inflows of $21.4 billion in CY23. DII inflows into equities in CY24 YTD continue to be strong at $58.9 billion against $22.3 billion in CY23.

Hyundai Motor, BMW Korea and three other carmakers will voluntarily recall nearly 300,000 vehicles due to faulty components, the transport ministry here said on Wednesday.

The five companies, including Kia, Honda Korea and Mercedes-Benz Korea, are recalling a total of 298,721 units of 84 different models, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport said in a statement.

The problems that prompted the recall include software problems in the integrated charging control unit of Hyundai's Ioniq 5 and Kia's EV6 all-electric models, a faulty braking system in BMW's 520i sedan and a faulty impeller of the fuel pump system in Honda's Accord sedan, according to the ministry.

Vehicle owners can check the government's homepage at www.car.go.kr or call 080-357-2500 to see if their vehicles are subject to the recall, the ministry said, reports Yonhap news agency.

Hyundai Motor Group on Tuesday announced key partnerships with the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) to establish a collaborative research system in the fields of batteries and electrification, as its doubles down on the EV ecosystem in the country.

The three institutes include IIT Delhi, IIT Bombay and IIT Madras. The Hyundai Center of Excellence (CoE), which will be set up within IIT Delhi, will operate through sponsorships from Hyundai Motor Group.

The primary objective of the Hyundai CoE is to take the lead in driving advancements in batteries and electrification, specifically designed to meet the unique requirements of the Indian market, the automaker said in a statement.

Hyundai Motor Group plans to invest around $7 million over five years, from 2025 to 2029, to jointly conduct battery and electrification-related research with the four IIT universities.

India's rapid urbanisation, robust infrastructure development, and economic growth have collectively driven significant demand, boosting construction activity in the industrial and logistics sector and supply, which is projected to surpass 60 million square feet annually over the next 3-4 years, a report said on Tuesday.

According to a report by Savills India, a global real estate advisory firm, "On an average, 3.4 per cent to 6.7 per cent increase in construction costs for general manufacturing and 4.8 per cent to 6.7 per cent for grade-a warehousing were registered between H1 2020 and H1 2024."

The report further said, "Among cities, Kolkata recorded the highest escalation for General Manufacturing costs at 6.7 per cent, followed closely by Chennai (6.5 per cent). For Grade-A Warehousing, Chennai led the surge with a 6.7 per cent increase, with Bengaluru and Hyderabad each witnessing a 6 per cent rise."

India's power consumption increased by 5.14 per cent to 125.44 billion units in November this year from 119.30 billion units in the same month last year, according to official figures.

The increase in power demand reflects the higher level of commercial and industrial activity taking place in the economy.

A report by ICRA stated that while there has been a moderation in growth in the earlier months, the full-year demand growth is expected to remain reasonable at 5.5 to 6 per cent. The decline in demand was due to a high base and the adverse impact of heavy rainfall during the monsoon months.

The highest supply in a day (peak power demand met) also rose marginally to 207.42 GW in November 2024 from 204.56 GW in the year-ago period.

Hyundai Motor, South Korea's biggest carmaker, said on Monday its sales fell 3.7 per cent last month from a year earlier due to a slowdown in vehicle demand.

Hyundai Motor sold 355,729 vehicles in November, down from 369,356 units a year earlier, the company said in a statement.

Domestic sales slumped 12.3 per cent to 63,170 units, while overseas sales slipped 1.6 per cent to 292,559, the statement said.

From January to October, its sales dropped 1.7 per cent to 3,809,424 units from 3,873,724 a year ago, reports news agency.

"The business environment is expected to remain challenging due to factors such as exchange rate and interest rate fluctuations, as well as heightened geopolitical risks," a company official said.

The passenger vehicle (PV) sales in India increased about 4 per cent (year-on-year) at 3,50,000 units in the month of November, data showed on Monday.

The total domestic PV wholesales stood at 335,954 units last month, driven by robust demand during the wedding season, increasing private consumption and SUV sales.

If we look at the January-November period, PV sales stood at 39,80,000 units, 4.1 per cent higher than 38,21,000 units sold in the same 11-month period in 2023.

In November, Maruti Suzuki India sold a total of 181,531 units, including domestic sales of 144,238 units, against 1,34,158 units in the year-ago month which is a growth of 5.5 per cent.

Driven by government initiatives like production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme, the electronics manufacturing services (EMS) sector is likely to grow to Rs 6 lakh crore in FY27 from Rs 1.46 lakh crore in FY22, and do well over short to medium term, a report showed on Monday.

The electronics manufacturing sector is on the cusp of a transformative journey, projected to grow at a robust CAGR of 26 per cent between the calendar year 2023-2030, reaching $500 billion.

India is emerging as a preferred global destination for electronics manufacturing due to increasing assembly activities and unprecedented demand in the electronics manufacturing services (EMS) sector, particularly in mobile phones, automotive, and industrial segments, according to the report by Motilal Oswal Wealth Management Ltd.

Favourable government policies such as the PLI schemes and the Semicon India programme, increasing domestic demand, and a robust push toward self-reliance is further propelling the opportunity.

The mega success story of Unified Payments Interface (UPI) continues, and it would be no surprise if the number of UPI transactions touches 25 billion a month towards the end of 2025, industry experts said on Monday.

After reaching a record high in October 2024 of 16.58 billion transactions and a value of Rs 23.50 lakh crore, UPI transactions in November stood at 15.48 billion transactions (38 per cent year-on-year growth) with a value of Rs 21.55 lakh crore (24 per cent YoY growth).

According to Sunil Rongala, SVP, Head–Strategy, Innovation and Analytics, Worldline India, October being the festive season saw a spike in transactions, which is usually seen across all spending channels.

“The number to consider is September 2024 transactions which was 15.04 billion indicating that UPI transactions are generally on a secular rise month-on-month,” he said.