With five months still left for 2019-20 marketing year to end, the association feels the mills have the potential to fulfil their exports commitments.

The minister also noted that the pendency of dues owed to MSME units by the central government, state governments, public sector undertakings and major industries was "very high".

The Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) has written to Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal seeking his intervention in the matter.

The state government on Thursday increased the VAT on petrol to 38 per cent from 36 per cent earlier while on diesel to 28 per cent from 27 per cent earlier.

The lender has also hiked interest rates on personal loans against property by 30 basis points.

Sebi also said 'some mutual fund schemes' continued to invest in high risk and 'opaque' debt securities despite the regulatory framework having been amended for safeguarding investors' interest.

She further said that state-owned banks implemented the moratorium announced by the RBI on repayment of loans.

The upbeat sentiment follows gains of over 1% in main U.S. and European stock indexes on Thursday.

Cognizant follows January-December as financial year. Its net profit was at USD 441 million in the March 2019 quarter.

Equity benchmark Sensex rallied over 600 points in opening session on Friday as strong gains in index-heavyweight Reliance Industries, massive foreign fund inflow and positive global cues boosted market sentiment.

Forex traders said a positive start of domestic stocks and significant foreign fund inflows supported the local unit.

Moody's Investors Service on Friday said the negative outlook on India's rating reflects increasing risks that GDP growth will remain significantly lower than in the past and partly hints at weaker policy effectiveness to address economic and institutional issues.

The ratings agency said it expected India to see no growth in financial year 2021 and bounce back to a 6.6% GDP growth in FY22.

Overall, the mutual fund industry witnessed net inflows of Rs 45,999 crore across all segments, data by the Association of Mutual Funds in India showed on Friday.

After rallying 645.13 points during the day, the 30-share index surrendered most gains to settle 199.32 points or 0.63 per cent higher at 31,642.70.

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in her Budget for 2020-21 had pegged gross borrowing in the new financial year at Rs 7.8 lakh crore, higher than Rs 7.1 lakh crore estimated for 2019-20.

Japanese brokerage Nomura warned of a likely downgrade of the sovereign by global ratings agencies while American brokerage Goldman Sachs (GS) said RBI will cut rates by another 1 percentage point to arrest the economic slide.

Franklin Templeton Mutual Fund also issued an apology to Sebi and said that comments of its top executive Jenny Johnson were wrongly interpreted, diluting her responses about the reason for winding up of schemes.

The employers' organisations also sought relaxation of the provisions of the Industrial Disputes Act to treat the lockdown period as lay-off.

Consumption of fuel, a proxy for oil demand, totalled 9.93 million tonnes - its lowest since 2007, government data showed on Saturday.

The deal could be completed as soon as this month, though no agreement has been finalised and plans may change.

Sidharth Nath Singh informed the participants, through video conferencing, about the developmental projects being undertaken in the state; including the Jewar Airport, said to be key to improving the state's airways connectivity.

The Associated Journals Limited (AJL) is controlled by senior Congress leaders, including members of the Gandhi family.

While the first instalment of the SGB 2020-21 series was open for subscription from April 20 to 24, the current issue will be open from May 11 to May 15.

Under the PM-KISAN (Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi) scheme, each farmer gets Rs 6,000 in a year in three equal installments directly in bank account.

Stephen Kearney sees this as a chance for Australia's National Rugby League to be one of the first sports in the world to emerge from Covid-19 shutdown.

Georges Laraque, who is asthmatic, developed pneumonia in both lungs and was hit by nightly fevers post hospitalisation after testing positive for Covid-19.

Taylor Fritz and Addison Rae beat Kei Nishikori and DJ Steve Aoki in the final of the Mario tennis charity tournament.

Armand Duplantis and Renaud Lavillenie shared the honours in the Ultimate Garden Clash.

Tennis is one of several social-distancing-compatible sports the Austrian government has allowed to resume as they ease the Covid-19 lockdown.

National Football League said they are planning to announce the schedule for full regular season by late next week.

The Checkmate Covid-19 Blitz Open, organised to raise funds for Kerala's fight against Covid-19, was won by Grandmaster SL Narayanan.

FINA announced that world championships were due to be held in Fukuoka next year from July 16-August 1 but will instead take place from May 13-29 in 2022

India will be represented by Viswanathan Anand, Vidit Gujrathi, P. Hari Krishna and Koneru Humpy at the online Nations Cup.

PGA Tour decided to ensure status for all players, exempt in 2019-20, to retain their status for 2020-21, too.

Leander Paes revealed that his mother was not to happy with his viral challenge that took social media by storm.

Novak Djokovic posted a video showing him exchanging shots with another man at clay court in the coastal city of Marbella.

A statement said 'appropriate testing measures' would be put in place to protect the health of players, production crew and others on site.

BWF chief Thomas Lund said the restrictions on international travel due to coronavirus has complicated the picture for badminton to resume.

Mary Wilson, a multiple sclerosis sufferer, hoped to qualify for Tokyo Paralympics but being 56-year-old, she recognises that with Covid-19 roadblock, time may not be on her side.

Sun Yang was found guilty of refusing to give a doping sample and was banned for eight years for the same.

Egypt's Youssef Hossam received life ban for match-fixing and his brother has got the same two years ago for corruption.

Kashmiri athletes like Afreen Hyder, Aijaz Hassan, Vilayat Hussain and more have to make do with the restricted spaces and still stay fit during Covid-19 lockdown.

Taylor Fritz said that the tennis authorities are looking to stage the US Open but he was unsure if they will be able to do that.

South Korea's sporting industry emerged from the coronavirus shutdown with baseball while football and golf will soon follow suit.

Money though the Player Relief Programme, run by ATP, WTA, Grand Slam organisers and ITF, will be divided equally among men and women.

The nomination inviting process usually begins in April but was pushed back due to Covid-19 lockdown and now, the final date of submission has been fixed at June 3.

Social-distancing restrictions are still in place in Australia, so 'normal' full-contact training will not resume for another week at least.

NSFs and State Olympic Associations have been asked to collect feedback from the stakeholders such as athletes, coaches, support staff, central and state government ministries, match officials and sports administrators

FFT president Bernard Giudicelli said the protocol proposed was "favorably received by the sports ministry" and could lead to the resumption of training and other amateur activities.