Which company has Reliance Industries acquired to enter into the financial services sector?

Mukesh Ambani moved closer to a 360-degree presence in financial services by buying out Bharti Enterprises from its insurance joint ventures with French major Axa. The Ambani flagship Reliance Industries (RIL), along with its associate Reliance Industrial Infrastructure Ltd (RIIL), have reached an agreement to acquire Bharti’s 74% shareholding in both and general insurance joint ventures with Axa.

Google Inc has bought online advertising technology company AdMeld for $400 million. The deal marks Google's latest effort to bolster its business in the market for graphical, display ads, where it competes with rivals, including Yahoo Inc and Facebook. Four-year-old AdMeld counts Discovery Communications, FOX News, Hearst Television, and The Weather Channel among its clients, according to its website.

Equinox Realty, Essar group’s real estate arm, plans to enter the mixed development space, with a focus on building malls, under its next phase of expansion. The company that owns a large commercial property in Mumbai is undertaking a couple of residential projects in western India.

Handset maker Nokia said it will spread its Mobile Money services pan-India by next year, enabling consumers to transact and make payments directly using their Nokia phones. Mobile Money allows the users to make electronic transactions in exchange of products or services without the use of hard cash. Kaustuv Chatterjee, head of solution marketing, mobile phones, said the originator has to be a Nokia handset and the recipient can be any one.

Following approval from market regulator SEBI, the Bombay Stock Exchange Ltd (BSE) announced the introduction of 135 additional stocks for trading in its equity derivatives segment. BSE will be introducing 135 additional eligible scrips to its existing list of 84 scrips in BSE equity derivatives segment, having expiry in August 2011 and onwards. Consequently, futures and options on stocks currently eligible on all stock exchanges will be available for trading on BSE. These will be available for trading from August 2011 contracts and onwards. All these instruments will be settled through physical delivery, another initiative launched by BSE earlier this year.

Leading co-operative lender Saraswat Bank has tied up with Reliance ADAG under which the Anil Ambani-led group will market a core banking solution developed by the bank's infotech subsidiary. Swift Core has been developed by Saraswat Infotech Limited (SIL), The ADAG will market the product and do the invoicing while SIL will serve as the service provider and carry out the maintenance.

Citigroup has agreed to sell a portfolio of private equity assets to Axa Private Equity for $1.7 billion, the French insurer. The portfolio comprises 207 stakes in various buyout funds as well as some direct stakes in companies, Axa said, adding that Citigroup -- which has been looking to focus on its core businesses -- was financing the purchase.

BlackBerry-maker, Research In Motion (RIM) has planned to open 200 more BlackBerry 'Experience Zones' across India by this year-end. So far, with more than 500 such stores across the country, it plans to add another 200. The concept of the BlackBerry 'Experience Zone is that customers can easily understand the use of BlackBerry products and get to know the propositions of BlackBerry smart phones, vis-a-vis other smart-phones.

RBI Deputy Governor KC Chakrabarty has asked banks to make transactions cost-effective to be in a position to establish the customers’ rights. He asked the bankers to leverage on technology to make financial inclusion a reality and said expanding business and retention were the two challenges before them.

Given that inflation continues to be a cause of concern for the RBI, economists expect a hike of 25 bps each in the repo rate and the reverse repo rate — currently at 7.25% and 6.25%, respectively — on June 16. Banks plan to hike the rates on short-term fixed deposits (FDs), or deposits for up to three months, in the event of the Reserve Bank of India deciding to increase key policy rates in its upcoming mid-quarter monetary policy review.