PRE-MARKET INDIAN STOCKS NEWS: ONGC (ONGC IS) secured a licence from the US Treasury's OFAC to resume full operations in Venezuela

Bharti Airtel (BHARTI IS) - Co.’s Airtel Payments Bank appointed Shabnam Sinha as chairperson for a three-year term beginning 1 October, replacing Sunil Bharti Mittal. (Economic Times)

Lupin (LPC IS) - Co. secured final US FDA clearance for a generic version of Pitolisant tablets used in the treatment of excessive daytime sleepiness. (Economic Times)

One 97 Communications (PAYTM IS) - Resilient Asset Management BV plans to sell as many as 19.2mln shares, equal to around 3% of the Co.’s outstanding share capital, through a block or bulk transaction worth up to INR 48.95bln. (Economic Times)

ONGC (ONGC IS) - Co. received authorisation from the US Treasury's OFAC to restart full operations in Venezuela after years of reduced activity due to sanctions-related constraints. (Economic Times)

SpiceJet (SJET IS) - India's NCLT postponed decisions on eight insolvency petitions brought against the Co. by aircraft lessors after it reached a last-minute agreement with one of them. (Economic Times)

Zee Entertainment Enterprises (Z IN) - Co. named Ashish Mishra as Chief Marketing Officer as part of efforts to bolster marketing and deepen consumer engagement across its businesses. (Economic Times)

OFAC licences permitting sanctioned-country operations have historically been issued selectively and revocably, and in the Venezuelan case they have tended to come as time-limited, activity-specific authorisations rather than blanket relief, so the operative questions are scope, duration, and whether the licence covers crude lifting, debt recovery, or only maintenance of existing assets. State-owned upstream operators from consuming nations have been granted such carve-outs before, typically where the authorisation serves the issuer's own supply or diplomatic objectives, and those precedents show the revenue contribution rebuilding slowly, since years of constrained activity leave wells, joint ventures, and payment channels in need of rehabilitation before output flows. The pattern in comparable episodes is that the licence itself moves the equity only modestly at first; the re-rating, where it has come, has followed evidence of actual cargo liftings and cash repatriation rather than the headline authorisation. The licence also sits within a wider sanctions posture that has shifted with diplomatic conditions, and prior rounds of Venezuelan authorisations have been narrowed or allowed to lapse when those conditions changed, which is the principal tail risk here. Worth noting the licence resolves a long-standing stranded-asset and receivables overhang rather than creating a new earnings stream. The follow-ons are any published terms of the authorisation, scheduling of first liftings, and whether peers with similar Venezuelan exposure receive parallel treatment.