Indian equity indices opened in the green on Friday following positive global cues.

At 9.43 a.m., Sensex was up 329 points or 0.41 per cent, at 80,373 and Nifty was up 118 points or 0.48 per cent, at 24,524.

Buying is seen in the broader markets. Nifty midcap 100 index is up 711 points or 1.25 per cent, at 57,453. Nifty smallcap 100 index is up 74 points or 0.40 per cent, at 18,747.

Among the sectoral indices, Metal, IT, PSU Bank, Pharma, Metal, Realty, Energy, and Infra are the major gainers. FMCG and private bank indices are trading under pressure.

Senior BJP leader and the party's former Madhya Pradesh president, Prabhat Jha, passed away at a hospital in Delhi on Friday. He was 67.

Two weeks ago he was airlifted to Delhi from Bhopal after his health deteriorated all of a sudden.

Jha served as the Madhya Pradesh BJP president and the party's national vice president.

He was popular in the party cadre and knew each worker by name. He was not afraid of speaking his mind and called a spade a spade.

Cordyceps sinensis (CS) -- a traditional Chinese medicinal fungus -- can help treat idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) -- a disease that causes scarring and stiffness in the lungs, according to a study in mice.

Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis is a chronic and progressive lung disease characterised by a decline in lung function, ultimately leading to respiratory failure and a significantly reduced quality of life for patients. With a median survival duration of 2 to 5 years post-diagnosis, there is an urgent need for effective treatments beyond the current antifibrotic medications, which are associated with adverse effects.

The study led by the Institute of Chinese Materia Medica at the China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences in China showed that Cordyceps sinensis, known for its antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties, can mitigate pulmonary inflammation and collagen deposition in a mouse model of IPF.

Amid the changing landscape where cyber-criminals use novel methods to steal personal data, the Digital Personal Data Protection (DPDP) Act, 2023 upholds individuals' rights to safeguard their data, incorporating established principles for its protection, the government has said.

According to Ministry of Electronics & IT, these principles include obtaining consent for lawful and transparent use of personal data, limiting its use to specified purposes, minimising data collection to necessary levels, ensuring data accuracy and timely updates, restricting storage duration to the required period, implementing robust security measures, and enforcing accountability through penalties for breaches and data adjudication.

US Republican senator Marco Rubio on Thursday said he has introduced a bill -- US-India Defense Cooperation Act -- to enhance the strategic diplomatic, economic, and military relationship with New Delhi to counter China.

“Communist China continues to aggressively expand its domain in the Indo-Pacific region, all while it seeks to impede the sovereignty and autonomy of our regional partners. It’s crucial for the US to continue its support in countering these malicious tactics. India, along with other nations in the region, is not alone,” Rubio said in a statement announcing his legislation.

The legislation would set a Statement of Policy that the US will support India in its response to growing threats to its territorial integrity, provide necessary security assistance to India to deter adversaries, and cooperate with India with respect to defence, civil space, technology, medicine, and economic investments;

ChatGPT maker OpenAI has announced its foray into the search market dominated by Google, with launching SearchGPT which is an AI-powered search engine offering real-time access to information across the web.

The Sam Altman-run company said it is testing SearchGPT, “a temporary prototype of new AI search features that give you fast and timely answers with clear and relevant sources”.

SearchGPT is designed to combine the strength of its AI models with information from the web to give the users fast and timely answers with clear and relevant sources.

OpenAi said it is first launching the search engine with a small group of users and publishers to get feedback.

Meta-owned WhatsApp has reached 100 million users in the US, said its CEO Mark Zuckerberg. This is the first time the social media company has revealed its US figures for the WhatsApp service.

Meta also said that over 50 per cent of WhatsApp’s users own iPhones.

Compared to the US, WhatsApp has with more than 500 million monthly active users in India.

Globally, the popular mobile messaging service has over 2 billion users.

Earlier this month, WhatsApp rolled out a new feature that will help users stay safe in group messaging.

Sri Lanka has set the crucial Presidential election for September 21, the Election Commission announced on Friday morning.

The gazette notification relating to the poll to elect the next President was published, the Government release said.

Nominations are called on August 15 and the election of the next President is crucial for the Indian Ocean island's recovery from the worst-ever economic crisis, which is being backed by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) led debt restructuring deal.

Global IT services and consulting provider Tech Mahindra on Thursday reported a 1.2 per cent decrease in revenue for the April-June quarter (year-on-year) at Rs 13,005 crore.

On a quarterly basis, the revenue went up 1 per cent for the IT company.

The consolidated PAT was at Rs 851 crore, up 23 per cent (YoY), for Q1 FY25, while EBITDA reached Rs 1,564 crore, up 16.9 per cent YoY.

The company reported total headcount at 147,620, down 677 annually, for the June quarter.

The bodies of five Israeli people, who were held hostages by Hamas after the attack on the country, have been recovered, Israeli forces said on Thursday.

They were identified as Maya Goren from Kibbutz Nir Oz and four soldiers, whose bodies were held hostage, according to a joint statement released by the Israeli military and the Shin Bet internal security agency. The soldiers -- Oren Goldin, Tomer Ahimas, Ravid Aryeh Katz, and Kiril Brodski -- were killed in combat with Hamas militants on October 7, 2023, news agency reported.

The bodies were retrieved in an operation carried out in Gaza on Wednesday by commando and Shin Bet forces and taken to Israel for identification, according to the statement.