Post Vistara-integration, national carrier Air India on Wednesday announced an optimisation of its domestic route network that will prioritise deployment of its best narrowbody cabin products on five key metro-to-metro routes, beginning December 1.

This will see all flights between select metro cities operated with erstwhile Vistara A320-series aircraft offering business, premium economy and economy class.

The routes are Delhi and Mumbai; Delhi and Bengaluru; Delhi and Hyderabad; Mumbai and Bengaluru and Mumbai and Hyderabad, Air India said in a statement.

These flights will operate with ‘AI’-prefixed four-digit flight numbers beginning with ‘2’, such as AI2999 from Delhi to Mumbai.

Hyundai Motor said on Wednesday it will buy back 1 trillion won ($716 million) worth of its own shares as part of efforts to boost its shareholder value.

In the buyback plan approved by the board of directors, Hyundai will repurchase 4.66 million shares, worth 1 trillion won, within a three-month period starting Thursday, the company said in a regulatory filing.

They account for 1.7 per cent of the company's overall listed shares. Hyundai said the purpose of the repurchase is to enhance shareholder value, reports news agency.

Reducing the number of shares in circulation increases the profitability per share and consequently raises the stock price, thus benefiting shareholders.

Hyundai Motor said on Wednesday it plans to launch an electric vehicle (EV) charging subscription service for Hyundai customers in Indonesia this week.

Starting Thursday, subscribers of the service will be able to use 518 chargers at 288 charging stations operated by Hyundai and its EV partner companies across Indonesia, reports news agency.

The service, which can be purchased on the company's smartphone app, offers charging plans of 50 kilowatt-hours (kWh), 100kWh and 250kWh. If users exhaust their selected plan, additional charging can be purchased.

Samsung Electronics announced its new leadership on Wednesday with a focus on the semiconductor business, in an apparent move to strengthen its future competitiveness in the field.

Jun Young-hyun, vice chairman and head of the device solutions (DS) division, was named CEO and will also lead the memory business and Samsung Advanced Institute of Technology, the Korean company said in a statement.

In a bid to bolster its technological competitiveness, the new CEO will directly manage the memory business unit.

Since taking office as the DS division head in May, Jun has created a new high bandwidth memory (HBM) development team in just over a month and has vowed to regain leadership in the global chip market, reports news agency.

Adani Group Chairman Gautam Adani, nephew Sagar Adani, and senior executive Vneet Jaain are clear of any bribery charges as per the US Department of Justice (DoJ), according to the latest filing with the stock exchanges by a group company, Adani Green Energy Ltd. (AGEL).

In its filing, AGEL has cited the news reporting by various media houses on the bribery and corruption charges against Adani Officials as ‘Incorrect’.

“Media articles which state that certain of our directors namely Mr Gautam Adani, Mr Sagar Adani and Mr Vneet Jaain have been charged with violation(s) of the US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) in the indictment. Such statements are incorrect,” said the statement filed by Adani Green Energy Ltd.

“Mr Gautam Adani, Mr Sagar Adani and Mr Vneet Jaain have not been charged with any violation of the FCPA in the counts set forth in the indictment of the US DOJ or civil complaint of the US SEC,” it added.

The Indian real estate sector is set to cross $4.8 trillion in market size by 2047, contributing over 18 per cent to the projected $26 trillion GDP target for the year, according to a joint report by real estate body CREDAI and Ernst & Young released on Tuesday.

The report expects PropTech to grow at a sustained rate to touch $600 billion in market size by 2047, comprising approximately 12-13 per cent of the entire real estate industry. The study backs the ongoing and projected technological revolution in real estate, given that currently, PropTech makes up less than 5 per cent of the $300 billion real estate sector.

The report highlights how innovations like Artificial Intelligence (AI), the Internet of Things (IoT), and Building Information Modelling (BIM) are revolutionising operations, enhancing efficiency, and ensuring transparency across the real estate value chain. This transformation supports India’s projected $26 trillion GDP by 2047, with the real estate sector projected to contribute over 18 per cent, up from its current 7 per cent share of the GDP.

Employing over 77 million people - approximately 14-15 per cent of India’s entire workforce - India’s real estate sector has consistently been a key economic pillar and is set to grow in prominence over the next decade, the report states

Global foldable smartphone shipments declined 1 per cent in the third quarter this year -- its first-ever Q3 decline -- as Samsung reclaimed the top spot with a 56 per cent market share, a report said on Tuesday.

The global foldable market appears to have entered a transitionary phase where it is facing challenges as it progresses from a niche segment to the mainstream, according to Counterpoint Research.

“User satisfaction is particularly high with book-type foldable devices, but the prohibitively high prices remain the biggest obstacle to mass adoption,” said senior analyst Jene Park.

If manufacturers give serious consideration to improving price accessibility, along with achieving further technological reliability and enhancing consumer perceptions, this phase can be overcome, Park added.

Independent telecom tower companies in India are likely to spend Rs 21,000 crore over fiscals 2025 and 2026 to support the telecom companies in expanding rural networks and improving service quality in urban areas, a report showed on Tuesday.

The push for better coverage and connectivity, along with rollout of 5G, had driven a Rs 23,000 crore capital expenditure (capex) over the past two fiscals as well, said the CRISIL Ratings report.

“The industry witnessed robust addition of towers in the past two fiscals to support 4G and 5G services. Now that the major rollout of 5G services is done, network capex of telcos is expected to decrease gradually,” said Anand Kulkarni, Director, CRISIL Ratings.

India's domestic air passenger traffic registered a 5.3 per cent increase to reach 1.36 crore in October, from 1.26 crore in the same month last year, according to data compiled by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA).

Leading airline IndiGo flew 86.40 lakh passengers during the month with a market share of 63.3 per cent, followed by Tata Group’s Air India and Vistara, which carried 26.48 lakh and 12.43 lakh passengers, respectively.

Air India, including Air India Express, recorded a market share of 19.4 per cent, while Vistara, which has now merged into Air India, accounted for 9.1 per cent market share.

Troubled low-cost carrier SpiceJet flew 3.35 lakh passengers while Akasa Air, transported 6.16-lakh passengers during October. The two airlines registered market shares of 2.4 per cent and 5.4 per cent, respectively.

A Moscow court fined Telegram Messager 7 million rubles (about $67,300) for refusing to remove information banned in Russia, the court press service said.

Telegram was found guilty of committing an administrative offence for failing to restrict access to information when such restriction is required by Russian law, the court said in a statement, news agency reported.

The court did not specify the prohibited information that led to the fine. Last month, Telegram was fined 4 million rubles for a similar offence.

With approximately 900 million subscribers, Telegram is now one of the world's leading messaging platforms and influential in Russia.