Top news, Dec 16: Zakir Hussain’s death, Vedanta 4th interim dividend, Nehru’s letters & more

Top news, 16 Dec: From Zakir Hussain’s death, Nehru’s letter to Vedanta fourth interim dividend, here are today’s top stories.

Zakir Hussain death

Legendary Tabla player Zakir Hussain passed away at 73 in San Francisco, his family said on Monday. He died due to idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis. Hussain was admitted to the hospital for two weeks and was taken to the ICU due to complications. He is survived by his wife, Antonia Minnecola and daughters, Anisa Qureshi and Isabella Qureshi. He is the son of eminent Tabla player Ustad Alla Rakha.

Vedanta fourth interim dividend

The metals and mining company Vedanta Limited has approved an interim dividend of ₹8.5 per equity share. This is the fourth dividend for FY25.

The Vedanta Board on Monday approved the fourth interim dividend of ₹8.5 per equity share on the face value of ₹1 per share, which amounts to ₹3,324 crore for FY25, the company informed in an exchange filing.

Stock market today

On Monday, the Indian stock market closed in the red. The Sensex fell by 0.47% to 81,748, while the Nifty 50 went down by 0.40% to 24,668. However, the Nifty Midcap index gained 0.77% to 59,443, and the Nifty Smallcap 100 index gained 0.64% to 19,531.

In today’s session, pharma and PSU stocks gained, whereas IT and financial stocks dipped, pulling down the indices. Meanwhile, the broad markets ended the session in positive territory.

Nehru’s letters

Congress leader Sonia Gandhi has been asked to return or provide copies or grant digital access to personal paper of former Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru. This request has been made by Rizwan Kadri, a member of the Prime Ministers’ Museum and Library (PMML) Society. According to ANI, Kadri stated there were 51 boxes with Nehru’s record that were retrieved by Sonia Gandhi’s office from the PMML, known as the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library (NMML), earlier.

Inventurus Knowledge Solutions IPO Day 3

Rekha Jhunjhunwala-backed Inventurus Knowledge Solutions IPO was subscribed 52.68 times on the Day 3 of bidding. Investors subscribed for 54,61,01,853 shares, compared to the 1,03,66,780 total shares available.

The QIB portion was subscribed 80.64 times, while the NII portion was booked 23.25 times and the retail investor portion was subscribed 14.55 times, according to BSE data on December 16.

Bangladesh elections

The general elections in Bangladesh will likely to be held in late 2025 or early 2026, according to Muhammad Yunus, the Chief Adviser in the interim government of Bangladesh.

The Sheikh Hasina-led government collapsed in August 2024 after a student-led movement. Muhammad Yunus was appointed as the chief adviser to the caretaker government formed in August, 2024.