Economy

By NNN-KUNA Kuwait : Two Indian companies have signed two contracts worth KD 120.13 million with the Kuwait National Petroleum Company (KNPC) and Kuwait Oil Company (KOC), the Indian ambassador in Kuwait said here. Under the first contract with the KNPC worth KD 117.89 million (USD 421 million), the Indian Larsen and Toubro Limited (L and T) will manufacture and supply 22 equipment for breaking and removing air sulfuric sediments, he told a news conference Tuesday.

By V.S. Karnic, IANS, Bangalore : If Tata Motors set up their Nano small car project in Karnataka, it will be the icing on the cake for the Tata Group's 100-year-old association with the state, formerly the princely state of Mysore. The group's association, first with Mysore and later Karnataka, began towards the end of the 19th century when its founder Jamsetji Nusserwanji Tata decided to set up a Research Institute or University of Research, prodded by Swami Vivekananda during a chance meeting on their voyage to America in 1893.

By IANS, Mumbai : Indian equities closed in the red Wednesday with a key index ending trade a marginal 0.22 percent lower than its previous close. The 30-scrip sensitive index (Sensex) of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) pulled down shutters at 9,015.18 points (provisional), down 0.22 percent or 19.82 points. The BSE midcap index ended 0.45 percent lower, while the BSE smallcap was down 0.61 percent. The broader-based S&P CNX Nifty index of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) closed at 2,775.95 points, 0.2 percent higher than its last close.

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By DPA, New York : A drop in oil prices and a tech share rally lifted US stocks across the board Tuesday, after last week's worst performance since February. The 2.5-percent drop in oil prices was the steepest decrease this month, and gave counterbalance to a huge drop in US consumer confidence reported Tuesday. The consumer index maintained by the New York-based Conference Board dropped to its lowest level since 1992 in April, increasing the likelihood of a further slowdown in the world's largest economy.

By IANS, Noida : A market in Noida's prime Sector 18 area was Wednesday demolished to pave the way for extending the Delhi Metro rail project to this satellite township, officials said. Authorities here razed the Rs.2 billion Kali Charan Market, which is said to be illegal. Earlier attempts to demolish the structure, which housed over 500 shops, proved futile as the developer had obtained a stay order from the Allahabad High Court.

By IANS, New Delhi : The Indian economy "has the capacity and resilience to weather the (financial) storm brewing across the world", Finance Minister P. Chidmbaram declared here Wednesday. "No one need have any fear," he added while reading out a statement on behalf of the Indian cabinet to reporters here. "We are watching the situation carefully and continually and will take steps swiftly" to respond to any liquidity crunch in the Indian market, the finance minister said.

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By IANS, New York : Direct Agents, an interactive advertising agency owned by Indian Americans, has been named one of the 50 "fastest growing Asian American businesses" by the US Pan Asian-American Chamber of Commerce Education Foundation (USPACC). The company will be honoured at USPACC's White House Gala May 28 in Washington. Direct Agents realised 50 percent annual growth since its inception in 2003. Its founders brothers Josh and Dinesh Boaz, both foreign born Indian Americans, have remained close to their Asian heritage while pursuing their American dream.

By IANS, New Delhi : Engineering and construction major Larsen and Toubro (L&T) will expand its Mysore-based medical equipment business, it said Monday. “The management has decided to retain the medical equipment business,” president of operations and board member R.N. Mukhija said in a regulatory statement. “L&T will continue to bring in suitable products in the interest of the nation to provide better healthcare. L&T wishes to reaffirm its commitment for the growth of its business," Mukhija added.

By IANS, Mumbai : A benchmark index for Indian equities markets closed 206.99 points or 1.12 percent higher Tuesday after the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) cut key interest rates.

By Arun Kumar, IANS, Washington : Vowing to "jolt this economy back into shape", US president-elect Barack Obama has said he and the Bush administration are "united" in their efforts to deal with a financial crisis of "historic proportions". As Obama unveiled his economic team "with the vision and expertise to stabilise our economy, create jobs, and get America back on track", he said there isn't "a minute to waste" when it comes to rebuilding the economy.

By IANS, Mumbai: A benchmark index of Indian equities markets closed flat Thursday after oil and gas, auto and capital goods stocks came under intense selling pressure.

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Ahmedabad, Sep 13 (IANS) Consumer Education and Research Centre (CERC) has urged SEBI here Wednesday to enforce its pro-investor proposal to waive the entry load for direct applications to mutual funds. It requested the market regulator to ignore opposition to the move by fund houses. "The proposed move will offer a huge saving to direct investors. The practice of paying large fees and distributing goodies to distributors is always at the investors' collective cost," CERC said in a statement.

By IANS, New Delhi : Reacting to criticisms over lack of measures in the interim budget presented Monday, Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia said in an election year, an incumbent government had the mandate only to present a vote on account. "I think this is a failure to understand the limitations of an interim budget," Ahluwalia said, soon after industry and average citizens complained that the interim budget tabled in parliament by External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee had no specific measures on tax rates or to help cushion the impact of global slowdown.

By IANS New Delhi : Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has ruled out a rollback of the fuel price hike announced Thursday, stressing that such a step would have a disastrous impact on the country's economy. "The increase is marginal. We have a situation where the world prices are rising," the prime minister told reporters on the sideline of a book release function at his 7 Race Course Road official residence here Thursday evening. "If we continue subsiding (the oil companies against rising crude prices), the fiscal system would collapse," he maintained.

By IANS, Mumbai : A benchmark index for Indian equities rose for the second straight day Thursday, ending 185 points higher than its previous close. The 30-scrip sensitive index (Sensex) of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), which opened at 18,067.67 points, ended at 18,442.46 points (provisional), 185.340 points or 1.01 percent up from its previous close at 18,257.12 points. At the National Stock Exchange (NSE), the broader 50-share S&P CNX Nifty shut shop 1.07 percent higher at 5,537.9 points.

By DPA, New York : US stocks suffered significant declines Wednesday, after the second-largest US package company FedEx reported a loss and a financial analyst warned of more credit crisis writedowns. FedEx reported a fiscal fourth-quarter loss of $241 million. The company had posted a $610-million profit in the year-earlier period.

By IANS, Mumbai : A key Indian equities index was trading in a flat and tight range post-noon Thursday and was ruling about 33 points higher even as mid-to-small sized scrips gained. At 12.40 p.m., the 30-scrip sensitive index (Sensex) of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) opened at 17,265.47 points and was ruling at 17,267.73 points, up 36.62 points or 0.21 percent from its previous close at 17,231.11 points.

By IANS, Kolkata : Admitting that food prices have soared \"excessively\", Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia said Tuesday that they would decline in January. "In January, you will see a decline in food prices," Ahluwalia told a Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) meeting through video-conferencing from New Delhi. Expressing grave concern over the stiff increase in the prices, he said: "Some increase was expected, but prices of vegetables and other food items have gone up excessively."

By IANS New Delhi : Coromandel Fertilisers Ltd., a company of the $1.6 billion Murugappa Group, has registered robust growth for fiscal 2006-07 with its profit after tax soaring at 20.57 percent over the previous financial year to reach Rs.1 billion. During 2006-07, the company earned a total income of Rs.20.84 billion, registering a growth of about 11 percent compared to the previous fiscal.

By IANS New Delhi : An exotic biryani, aromatic nalli korma (mutton) and delectable chocolate mousse decorated one of the tables at the International Hospitality Fair 2007 in Pragati Maidan. All of this, mind you, was whipped up in an hour and a half sharp and was just one of the few culinary delights available. Organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), the International Hospitality Fair (IHF), which started in the capital Monday, is a four-day affair concluding Oct 11.

By IANS, Thiruvananthapuram : HLL Lifecare Ltd, which is setting up an integrated vaccine complex (IVC) in Tamil Nadu's Chengalpattu, has denied allegations that the central government closed down three state-run vaccine manufacturers last year to favour the IVC project. M. Ayyappan, chairman and managing director of HLL Lifecare, formerly known as Hindustan Latex Ltd, said the controversy over the Rs.9-billion (Rs.900-crore) IVC was "needless".

By Pervez Bari, TwoCircles.net Sagar (Madhya Pradesh): Stage is all set for the Bundelkhand Investors' Meet being held here at Sagar on Friday (April 11). After successfully holding a series of investors' meet at Khajuraho, Indore and Jabalpur, the destination is now Sagar for the one-day Bundelkhand Investors' Meet.

By IANS, New Delhi : The oil production in Mukesh Ambani-owned Reliance Industries will start resume by the end of January, a senior official said Monday. “The oil production in the Reliance KG Basin D6 block is set to resume by January end,” Director General of Hydrocarbons V.K. Sibbal told reporters on the sidelines of Petrotech 2009 conference here. He said there was a problem but the production would start soon.

By IANS Kolkata : Aptech Limited, the global learning solutions company, has featured in SalesTrainingIndustry.com's Top Sales Training Companies list for 2008. Aptech Ltd is included in the list for providing quality training on a company's products or services to internal sales professionals and enterprise workforces as well as to the external sales chain, including resellers and distributors, a company official said here Friday.

By IANS, Chennai : Cephalosporin bulk drug manufacturer Orchid Chemicals and Pharmaceuticals Ltd has posted a net loss of Rs.316.5 million on a total income of Rs.3.06 billion for the period ended June 30, as against a net profit of Rs.513 million and turnover of Rs.2.36 billion posted during the corresponding period of the previous year. Orchid Chemicals net was weighed down heavily owing to Rs.588 million exchange loss on the foreign currency convertible bonds (FCCB) issued earlier.

By IANS, Bangalore : As in case of Infosys Technologies, the attrition rate of India's third largest IT bellwether Wipro too jumped to 15.8 percent during the first quarter (April-June) of this fiscal (2010-11) from 9.8 percent in like period year ago (2009-10) and 12.1 percent quarter ago. As a result, net addition for the company's flagship IT services business was 4,854 people in the quarter under review as against 3,725 in the previous quarter (Jan-March) of last fiscal (FY 2010) and minus 735 a year ago.

By IANS, Raipur : The country's largest steel maker Tata Steel Tuesday reported a 14 percent fall in sales in the October-December quarter over the corresponding period uin 2007. According to an official statement, the company's total sales during the period stood at 1.07 million tonnes. The fall was attributed to the impact of the global meltdown. However, the steel major registered a 27 percent growth in the long product sales in the third quarter at 480,000 tonnes. The hot metal and crude steel production also went up during the quarter.

By DPA, Washington : The US House of Representatives Wednesday approved a $14-billion emergency loan to keep the country's car industry out of bankruptcy, sending the bill to a more skeptical Senate. House lawmakers approved the legislation by 237-170 after weeks of negotiations. The Senate could vote on Friday, but a group of Republican senators have vowed to oppose the loan and appeared to have enough support to block the legislation.

By IANS, Mumbai : Following are the highlights of the half-yearly review of India's monetary policy for 2009-10, conducted by Reserve Bank Governor D. Subbarao: - Statutory liquidity ratio hiked to 25 percent from 24 percent - Bank rate left unchanged at 6 percent - Repurchase rate left unchanged at 4.75 percent - Reverse repurchase rate left unchanged 3.25 percent - Cash reserve ratio left unchanged at 5 percent - Annual inflation rate to 6.5 percent by the end of March - Retains growth projection for the country's economy at 6 percent for current fiscal

By IANS Mumbai : Software leaders Microsoft Corp India and HCL Infosystems Ltd have announced a set of joint initiatives, including the launch of world's cheapest "Windows" enabled laptop computer and setting up of a centre of excellence (CoE) to create a customised solution framework for India. Announcing this here Friday, Ajai Chowdhry, chairman and CEO of HCL, said: "The Windows OS (operating system) will be launched under the MiLeap brand of HCL land and will cost Rs.16,990."

By IANS, Toronto : With the rapidly disappearing Arctic Ocean ice raising prospects of a scramble for rich seabed resources among neighbouring nations, Canada is flexing its muscle, extending its jurisdiction over the region from 100 nautical miles to 200. Until now, the Arctic Ocean ice bed melted only during summer months, opening the so-called Northwest Passage (from the Pacific to the Atlantic) for shipping activities. But with the Arctic ice-bed melting fast due to global warming, the Northwest Passage could remain open and thus navigable year-long for international shipping.

By IANS, Mumbai : A 14-week ride of the bulls was brought to a halt at the Indian equities markets as investors booked profits amid concerns that the recent rise was not backed by strong fundamentals. A key index lost 716 points over its previous weekly close. The 30-share sensitive index (Sensex) of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) fell after rising for 14 consecutive weeks, losing 4.7 percent or 716.05 points over the previous Friday's close and ended trade at 14,521.89.

By IANS New Delhi : The government is taking policy initiatives that should help in attracting investment in urea manufacturing and increasing availability of fertilizers, parliament was informed Monday. "The government is in the process of finalising a pricing policy for new investment in the urea sector in order to promote investment and consequently increase the availability of the fertilizer," Chemicals and Fertilizer Minister Ram Vilas Paswan told the Rajya Sabha.

By IANS Chennai : With its cookies baking into hard cash, the Chennai-based Australian Foods that owns the Cookie Man retail chain has chalked out a major expansion plan that will see its outlets spread to 33 cities in the country. The Rs.125-million turnover company intends to have these outlets operational by 2008, spread over the northern, west and southern India by 2008," said S.B.P Pattabhi Rama Rao, president of the company.

By IANS, New Delhi : Commodity exchanges have to bring their foreign investment component to the prescribed level by June 30, 2009, the commerce ministry said Wednesday. The ministry also issued guidelines relating to foreign investment in Indian projects - as some commodity exchanges have overseas funds above the ceiling of 49 percent. "It has been brought to the notice of the government that some of the existing commodity exchanges had foreign investment above the permitted level," said an official statement.

By IANS, Ranchi : An operation has been launched to rescue ten employees and labourers of Hindalco company, abducted by Maoist rebels from Jharkhand's Gumla district, police said Tuesday. Ten employees and workers of Hindalco were abducted Monday night from Tetarpani village of Gumla district, around 145 km from Ranchi. The rebels had also set ten vehicles on fire, including six trucks laden with bauxite.

By IANS, New Delhi : The tight monetary policy stance of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has caused a decline in industrial growth, according to a study by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (Ficci). "The tight monetary policy stance taken by the Reserve Bank of India has led to a decline in demand in the economy, affecting industrial growth which has declined from 14.8 percent in March 2007 to 3 percent in March 2008," Ficci said in a study on 'Slowdown in Industrial Growth and its Policy Implications'.

By IANS Mumbai : The Indian equities market opened on a firm note Friday, piggybacking on the gains on the Wall Street overnight. In the initial trade select IT and metal stocks led the rally. The 30-share benchmark sensitive index opened at 17,610.07, 79 points higher than its previous close. Half an hour into the trade the sensex was trading almost 142 points higher at 17,688.45. At the National Stock Exchange (NSE), S&P Nifty opened more or less at the same level at 5133.25 against its previous close.

By IANS, Bangalore : Union Textiles Minister Shankarsinh Vaghela Monday said he favours the withdrawal of import duty on cotton to enable the textile industry source cheaper cotton from other countries at affordable prices. “I have written to the prime minister for withdrawing the import duty of 14.7 percent, including 10.7 percent customs duty and four percent import tax, on cotton to benefit the local industry and exporters,” Vaghela told reporters here.

By IANS Chennai : The Chennai based Rs.10 billion revenue Polaris Software Lab Limited has decided to enter six new markets soon with its Intellect suite of banking software products. The markets identified by the company are Russia, Eastern Europe, Latin America and China as well as Southern and Western Africa. In the recent times the company's banking software products has been gaining increased acceptance amongst overseas and domestic banks.

By IANS, Mumbai : A benchmark index of Indian equities markets was trading flat in afternoon trade after heavy selling in consumer durables, information technology and auto stocks.

By IANS, Kolkata : City-based UCO Bank posted a marginal increase of 0.42 percent in net profit during the first quarter of the current fiscal at Rs.1.33 billion, against Rs.1.32 billion over the same period last year. Announcing the first quarter results Saturday, bank chairman-cum-managing director S.K. Goel said: "Deposits increased by 24.07 percent and advances by 29.26 percent. The total business of the bank stood at Rs.1.34 trillion with deposits at Rs.782.35 billion and advances at Rs.557.25 billion at the end of June, 2008."

By IANS New Delhi : Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) Tuesday said it has made a second gas discovery in its deep-water exploration block of the Krishna basin in the Bay of Bengal. "RIL is pleased to announce yet another discovery in exploratory block KG-OSN-2003/1 (KG-V-D3) of Krishna Basin," the company said in a statement. "This is the second gas discovery in this block," it added. The company holds a 90-percent participating interest in the block while the balance is with Britain-based petroleum company Hardy Exploration and Production.

By IANS, Mumbai : A benchmark index of Indian equities market closed 171 points higher Tuesday on renewed buying support in banking and realty stocks.

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By IANS, Washington: The US Friday eased decade-old import restrictions on Myanmar goods just days before President Barack Obama sets foot on the Southeast Asian nation.

By IANS, Washington : A new device that takes only seconds to recharge mobile phone or laptop batteries is being designed and is expected to hit the markets in two or three years. The MIT breakthrough could also permit an electric car to be recharged as quickly as it takes to refill a car tank with petrol thus eliminating a virtually insurmountable hurdle to green, clean motoring.

By Gurmukh Singh, IANS, Toronto : There is more bad news for BlackBerry maker Research In Motion (RIM) as its smart phone sales have slipped to the third position in the US market.

By IANS, Mumbai : Indian equities markets were trading dull in the last trading session of the week, with no major buying happening among frontline stocks or broader markets. The 30-scrip sensitive index (Sensex) of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), which opened at 17,523.47 points, was ruling at 17,531.01 points, 21.68 points or 0.12 percent up from its previous close at 17,509.33 points. At the National Stock Exchange (NSE), the broader 50-share S&P CNX Nifty was ruling at 5,256.3 points, up 0.09 percent from its previous close at 5,251.4 points.

By IANS, New Delhi : Employees of national carrier Air India went on a two-hour strike at airports across the country Friday to protest the delay in salary payments, but it failed to move the airline management. "No flights were affected while our employees were on strike," said Air india executive director for corporate communications Jitender Bhargava. Maintaining that there was no need for any discussion with employees on the issue, Bhargava told IANS: "We will look into their demand."

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By DPA, Tokyo : Tokyo stocks opened modestly higher Monday as investors bought back battered shares, but gains were capped due to anxiety over the slowdown of Japan's economic growth. The Nikkei 225 Stock Average edged up 98.8 points, or 1.17 percent, to 8,561.19. The broader Topix index of all first-section issues was also up 6.31 points, or 0.75 percent, to 853.22. The government announced Monday that the nation's economy shrank at an annualised rate of 0.4 percent in real terms in the July-September period.

By IANS, Mumbai: A day ahead of its monetary policy review, India's central bank Monday said inflation needs to come down from current levels for interest rate hikes to ease off.

By IANS, Dhaka : Bangladesh's Unique Group, which owns Westin Dhaka, has signed a deal with Starwood Hotels and Resorts to set up two more five-star hotels in Dhaka and a third in Chittagong. Two hotels to come up in downtown Dhaka are Le Meridien and The Westin Dhaka 2. The one in Chittagong will be the first five-star hotel in the port town. Construction will be completed by 2012. The initial investment will be taka two billion ($290 million), The Daily Star said Tuesday.

By IANS, Washington : Japan and Norway are the world's most innovative countries while India, Vietnam and China are among those at the very bottom of the list, says one of the most comprehensive studies of its kind, which evaluates 31 countries based on the time it takes for new products to take off.

By IANS, New Delhi : Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd (MRPL) announced Friday a 129 percent jump in the company's net profit in the first quarter of this financial year, a company regulatory statement said. MRPL, a mini-ratna and an ONGC group company, posted a profit after tax of Rs.8.4 billion in the quarter ending June 30, 2008, compared to Rs.3.6 billion in the comparable period of last year.

New Delhi : The government has seeded 9.39 crore Jan Dhan accounts with the Aadhaar unique identity number, Minister of State for Finance Jayant...

By IANS Thiruvananthapuram : In a sector that has high attrition rates, Kerala's IT sector has shown the way. At a mere seven percent, its attrition rate is the lowest in the country. "In other states, the attrition rate is as high as 20 percent. In terms of companies in this sector and in terms of number of employees, Kerala's IT sector has grown dramatically. Today in Technopark, there are 127 big and small companies which employ around 17,000 professionals," said Sunil Gupta, president of Gtech, an association of IT companies in the Technopark campus here.

By Sushma Ramachandran, IANS, Even as uncertainty looms large in India over which party or coalition will run the next national government, what has emerged as a given is continuity in the country's economic policies - but for some sensitive areas like lifting the cap on foreign investment and divestment of stake in state-run enterprises. After six decades of independence, the distinct differentiation in the economic policies among the major political parties with ideologies tilted toward the right, left and the centre has transformed into a fuzzy kind of sameness.

By IANS Dubai : Once the ultimate job destination for many middle class Indians, Gulf countries now face a severe crunch of skilled workers from the country thanks to India's steady economic progress and rise in incomes, say company heads in the region. Gathering together at a function in the Qatar capital Doha to celebrate the 60th anniversary of India's independence, employers said that though they were extremely happy for India the economic expansion did pose a problem in getting skilled workers, reported the Gulf Times.

By IANS, Kolkata : TOTO Ltd., Japan's largest sanitaryware manufacturer with business worth $4.5 billion worldwide, says it has been "inspired" by the retail boom in eastern India to foray into the region. "Retail boom and hospitality boom in eastern India have inspired us to start our outlet in this region," said Rajnish Nandan, regional manager (north and east), TOTO Ltd. The company has now tied up with Multiwyn Lifestyle for distribution in the region.

Ranchi, Sep 17 (IANS) Unhappy with the worsening law and order situation in Jharkhand and failure of the state government to announce a new industrial policy, traders in the state have decided not to participate in the industry fair this year to be held in November. The traders blamed the Madhu Koda government for failing to come out with the industrial, purchase and rehabilitation and resettlement (R&R) policies.

By Pervez Bari, TwoCircles.net Bhopal: The Bharatiya Janata Party ruled Madhya Pradesh Government has claimed that 38 out of 102 MoUs signed during the 'Global Investors' Summit-2007' held in Indore, the financial capital of the state, on October 27 and 28 last year has started taking shape.

By IANS, Dubai : India is among several destinations that Etihad Airways, the national carrier of the United Arab Emirates, will increase operations to in its winter flying programme from Oct 26. The airline’s Indian flying programme will be boosted with an increased number of flights to Kochi in Kerala from six to seven per week and Chennai from one daily to 10 per week, the airline said in a statement. There are around 1.5 million expatriate Indians in the UAE.

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By IANS Lucknow : Leading infrastructure firm Jaypee Industries has emerged as the lowest bidder for the Rs.400-billion ($10 billion) Ganga expressway, slated to connect the eastern parts of Uttar Pradesh to the national capital and to the west of the state. The 1,000-km eight-lane expressway is the biggest single infrastructure project in the country, touted as the dream undertaking of Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati. The foundation stone for the expressway will be laid Tuesday at a symbolic ceremony at Mayawati's official residence here on her 52nd birthday.

By IANS, Kolkata : The talks to end the stalemate on the Tata's Singur plant were postponed from Friday morning to 4 p.m. as the Trinamool Congress-led opposition did not act on the West Bengal governor's suggestion to temporarily suspend protests and allow normalcy on the Durgapur Expressway, Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee said here.

New Delhi : Dismissing the Railway Budget - 2016-17 presented in the Lok Sabha on Thursday by Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu as a "big...

By Lars Nicolaysen, IANS, Tokyo : Japanese car manufacturers aim to counter the twin challenges of climate change and spiralling oil prices with a range of affordable hybrid cars, which run on both petrol and electricity. Although Toyota has sold over one million of its groundbreaking Prius hybrid, the car remains a high-tech niche model: Now Japan's second-largest maker Honda, plans to market an entry-level hybrid model of its own with the roll-out planned for next year.

By IANS, Hyderabad : The stage is set for the ninth edition of BioAsia, the annual global bio business forum, beginning here Feb 9.

By Aroonim Bhuyan, IANS, Dubai : Come Oct 30 and tourists across the world will have another reason to visit this desert oasis city as one of the world's largest malls will open its doors to the public. Emaar Malls Group, a subsidiary of the United Arab Emirates (UAE)-based real estate major Emaar Properties, has finalized the date for the inauguration of The Dubai Mall, it was announced here.

By IANS, Mumbai : India's largest private lender ICICI Bank Saturday reported a 21 percent increase in net profit at Rs.878 crore ($183 million) for the quarter ended June 30, as compared to Rs.728 crore in the same period last year. The total interest income fell 5.02 percent to Rs.1,985 crore in the quarter from Rs.2,090 crore in the corresponding period last year, the bank said in a regulatory statement.

By IANS, New Delhi : Railway Minister Lalu Prasad proposed the extension of services of the following trains in the interim budget he presented Friday: 1. 5761/5762 Ranchi-Alipurduar Express to Guwahati 2. 9269/9270 Porbandar-Bapudham Motihari Express to Muzaffapur 3. 1471/1472 Jabalpur-Bhopal Express to Laxmibai Nagar, Indore 4. 6865/6866 Ernakulam-Tiruchchirapalli Express to Nagore 5. 3155/3156 Kolkata-Darbhanga Mithilanchal Express to Sitamarhi 6. 2175/2176 Howrah-Gwalior Chambal Express to Mathura 7. 2177/2178 Howrah-Agra Cantt Chambal Express to Mathura

By Xinhua, New York : US stocks rebounded from the day's lows and ended mostly higher Thursday after a deal to prevent more foreclosures offset concerns over jobless data and sales slump. The news that US Democratic lawmakers reached an agreement with Citigroup Inc. on a plan to prevent more mortgage foreclosures lifted the market in the late afternoon trading. US President-elect Barack Obama delivered a main speech on US economy Thursday morning, urging the Congress to pass a massive stimulus plan in a few weeks.