Economy

By Anuradha Shukla, IANS, New Delhi : With a wide variety of dry fruits, herbs, fruits, saffron and intricately woven colourful carpets, Afghan stalls are a major draw at the ongoing India International Trade Fair here that is on till Nov 27. Nearly 50 Afghan businessmen are participating at the fair, reminding people flocking to Hall 12 A in the sprawling Pragati Maidan grounds of Rabindranath Tagore's famous tale "Kabuliwala", what with their Pathani suits and traditional headgear.

By IANS, New Delhi : Finance Minister P. Chidambaram Wednesday told a gathering of Congress spokespersons here that inflation would take a minimum six to nine months to moderate. Speaking at the closed-door orientation programme, Chidambaram expressed confidence that the monetary measures undertaken by the government would yield results, but it would take some time, sources told IANS. The minister also said the nine percent economic growth has had positive as well as negative impacts on the common people. Where there was good governance, there were positive effects, he said.

By IANS,

By IANS Bhubaneswar : Top IT companies setting up shop and the government's plan to provide drinking water to 10,000 villages were some of the points highlighted by Orissa Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik Wednesday during his Independence Day address. Hoisting the tricolour at the Mahatma Gandhi Marg here, Patnaik paid tribute to the leaders who had sacrificed their life for the nation and said the country has progressed in various fields as had Orissa.

By Aroonim Bhuyan Dubai, March 23 (IANS) In November last year, during the Dubai Air Show, Emirates ordered $23.4 billion worth of aircraft from Airbus and Boeing, with options for 50 more. Today, experts here say, this "options for 50 more" is what is going to help the Dubai government spread its own version of low cost wings.

By Venkatachari Jagannathan, IANS, Chennai : The Gujarat government has asked for all the power from the proposed 1,000 MW project in a joint venture with the state-run Neyveli Lignite Corp (NLC) in Tamil Nadu, though the norms are that at least 57 percent of the electricity generated to be fed to the national grid. "We have already written to the central government asking for the entire power for consumption in our state. We are waiting for a response," a Gujarat government official who requested anonymity told IANS on phone from Gandhinagar.

By IANS, New Delhi : Harsh Chitale has been appointed as the chief executive officer of HCL Infosystems.

By IANS, New Delhi : Pascal Lamy, World Trade Organisation (WTO) director general, will visit India Tuesday in an attempt to revive the mini-ministerial trade talks that collapsed last month in Geneva. Lamy is expected to try and get India agree on a deal to open up markets in industrial and agricultural goods as well as services. The WTO chief will be here Tuesday and Wednesday and is expected to meet Commerce Minister Kamal Nath, according to a schedule put out at the WTO website.

By IANS, Thiruvananthapuram : Leader of Opposition in the Kerala assembly Oommen Chandy Saturday asked the ruling Left Front to lower bus fares and water and electricity charges in view of the reduction in fuel prices. Speaking to reporters, Chandy pointed out that various cabinet ministers had made statements that they had been forced to raise the prices because of the increase in fuel price.

By IANS, New Delhi : The winter session of parliament got off to a chaotic start Thursday with the Lok Sabha being adjourned for the day as the entire opposition united to stage noisy protests against the new sugarcane pricing policy of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government. The house was first adjourned till 12 noon when opposition members, led by Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Mulayam Singh Yadav, gathered near Speaker Meira Kumar's podium protesting the government's low sugarcane prices.

By IANS, Rio de Janeiro : At the time when the entire world is suffering from a severe food crunch and price rise, Brazil has said it will significantly increase its food production to establish itself as one of the world's largest food providers, EFE news agency reported Wednesday. "The government's Agricultural and Livestock Plan for the year 2008-09 is aimed at meeting the tightening situation in the world food market," Edilson Guimaraes, a senior official at the agriculture ministry, said in an interview with official news service Agencia Brasil.

By IANS,

By Neelam Mathews, IANS, Berlin : Vijay Mallya, chairman of the spirits-to-airline major UB Group, has initiated talks with France-based EADS Socata, a leading aircraft manufacturer, to invest some $200 million to co-develop business jets for which India has now emerged as a hot market. "We want to look at a global organisation that has service centres in place with tools to market in the country," EADS Socata spokesman Phillipe de Segovia told IANS, confirming that the group was in talks with Mallya and other international companies.

By EuAsiaNews Brussels : Ask about relations between India and the 27-nation European Union (EU) and you'll hear a thrice-told tale, of the difficulties which Indian – and EU–exporters of textiles and clothing, for example, face on each other's markets. Now the fact is that few Europeans see India as an exporter of cheap clothing and other run-of-the-mill consumer products. That honour belongs to China.

By Arun Kumar, IANS,

By DPA, New York : At least six of the 19 largest US banks need more capital to remain healthy through the recession, according to leaked information from the two-month stress test carried out by the nation's bank regulators, media reports said Wednesday. The infusions could come from extra cash injections from the government, but more likely from converting preferred shares to common equity, Bloomberg reported, citing people close to the situation.

By IANS, Mumbai : Indian equity markets, in a freefall for the past few days, took a U-turn with a benchmark index crossing the psychologically important level of 9,000 points in a special 'muhurat' trading Tuesday evening, bringing a hope for harassed investors. The muhurat trading, marking the beginning of the Hindu Samvat calendar year 2065, saw the 30-share Sensitive Index (Sensex) of the Bombay Stock exchange closing at 9,008.08 points, up 498.52 points or 5.86 percent.

By IANS, Chennai : Water solutions company Va Tech Wabag has bagged a Rs.1,033-crore order to design, erect and operate a desalination plant from Chennai Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board, commonly known as Chennai Metro Water. "We will design, build and operate the plant for seven years. The plant capacity will be 100 million litres per day and sea water will be converted into drinking water, using reverse osmosis technology," company managing director Rajiv Mittal said here Tuesday. The plant will come up on 40 acres at Nemmeli near here.

By John Stanly, IANS, Kadi (Gujarat) : Hitachi Home and Life Solutions, the Indian unit of Japan's Hitachi Appliance Inc, Friday flagged off a new plant near Ahmedabad to manufacture air-conditioners and chillers and promised to invest more in the unit to expand operations. The Rs.50 crore plant, adjacent to the company's existing facility in Kadi, some 40 km from the state capital, was inaugurated by Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi. Hitachi managing director Shinichi Izuka said the new unit would initially manufacture commercial air-conditioners.

By Arun Kumar, IANS Washington : Any policy framework for multilateral action on climate change would be costly and politically difficult without including large and fast-growing economies such as India, China, Brazil, and Russia, according to the IMF.

By IANS, New Delhi : The share of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in India's gross domestic product (GDP) is likely to go up to 22 percent by 2012, according to an industry lobby report, released here Sunday. The Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (Assocham) said in the study that the SME sector was upgrading itself technologically. “Technological upgradation will reduce input costs and increase production, which will enable SMEs to contribute 22 percent to India's GDP against 17 percent by 2012,” it said.

By DPA, Washington : Hoping to avoid bankruptcy, ailing US carmaker Chrysler LLC will Friday shut down all of its manufacturing plants for at least one month because of plummeting car sales, the company announced. Chrysler's announcement Wednesday comes after US lawmakers last week failed to agree on a $14 billion emergency loan for the US car industry. Chrysler and General Motors Corp have said they do not expect to survive without federal aid.

By IANS, New Delhi : Top business conglomerate the Tata Group has emerged the leader in sustainable development in India in the first-ever move to measure performance of businesses in this area by a Sustainable Development Index (SDI) launched here Tuesday by UK telecommunication major British Telecom (BT). The new SD index, developed in partnership with GlobeScan, an independent Canadian company that provides public opinion and stakeholder information for clients, is a means to measure the performance of Indian business houses in sustainable development.

By IANS New York : Projecting a robust 9.4 percent growth for the Indian economy in 2007, Merrill Lynch Tuesday said along with China the two countries had ensured that the US today cannot change the global outlook significantly. "The impact of our lower US growth forecast is smaller than many investors realise. The 80 basis point cut in our US growth forecast brings 2008 global growth to 4.8 percent from 5 percent previously," the consultancy's 'Global Economies' report said.

By IANS, Mumbai : A key index of the Indian equities markets soared into the green Thursday, with a key index ending trade about 317.45 points higher than its last closing figure. The 30-scrip sensitive index (Sensex) of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), which opened at 10,841.57 points, rose 317.45 points or 2.93 percent from the previous close to end trade at 11,134.99 points. Similarly, the S&P CNX Nifty of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) shed 2.8 percent to close at 3,423.7 points.

By IANS, New Delhi : Ahead of a meeting among world leaders in Washington next month on the global financial crisis, Finance Minister P. Chidambaram met with key policy makers and monetary experts here Wednesday to formulate India's position on the subject. "Today's meeting was about what would be India's response at the summit," said C. Rangarajan, a Rajya Sabha member, who was previously chairman of the Prime Minister's Economic Advisory Council and governor of the central bank.

By IANS, New Delhi : Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee Monday said India's defence budget for 2011-12 had been hiked to Rs.154,415 crore ($34 billion).

By Venkata Vemuri, IANS, London : As Britain marches on to make itself smoking-free, new schemes are on the way to pipe out the smoke. The one that has the tobacco industry worried is the move to force tobacco firms to sell cigarettes in plain, unbranded packets. The department of health is considering outlawing the use of logos, colours and graphics on packets and requiring them to be sold in plain packaging. Officials say it will strip cigarettes of their glamorous image and reduce the numbers of young people taking up the habit.

By IANS, New Delhi : India's civil aviation suppliers market, including components and maintenance, is seen growing annually at 16.1 percent over the next five years to top $3.89 billion, says a new research by a global consultancy. "Low manufacturing and labour costs are expected to boost outsourcing to India. Labour costs in India are relatively lower compared to the western countries," says the Frost and Sullivan study, listing the reasons for the projection.

By IANS New Delhi : Finance ministers and secretaries of the eight member nations of South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) have decided to accord priority to a development fund that aims to support the marginalized people in the region. "I would urge all of you to come to an agreement on the terms of reference so that the Development Fund can be used for activities supporting the development goals of other countries," India's Finance Minister P. Chidambaram told the second meeting of SAARC finance ministers and secretaries here.

By Dipankar De Sarkar, IANS, London : Prime Minister Manmohan Singh left here Friday after helping secure a G20 deal that he said would help inject up to $1.1 trillion into the rapidly-emptying coffers of developing countries struggling to cope with the world's worst economic crisis in 60 years. "I was happy to note that our views received wide acceptance and support," Manmohan Singh, who led the Indian delegation, said at the close of the summit.

By IANS, New Delhi : The government hopes to net around Rs.45,000 crore from the ongoing auctions to award radio frequency spectrum for third generation (3G) telecom services and for rolling out broadband wireless internet services, Communications Minister A. Raja said Tuesday. "The auction of 3G and Broadband Wireless Access (BWA) spectrum put together is likely to fetch Rs.44,000-45,000 crore for the government," Raja said on the sidelines of an event organised by an association of telecom operators.

By DPA, Berlin : Germany is investigating 150 tonnes of steel items imported from India which were contaminated with radioactivity, the Der Spiegel news magazine said in a report to be published in its Monday issue. It said the most serious case was five tonnes of stainless steel wool which had to be disposed of by a nuclear waste company, GNS. The contamination was thought to be the result of the radioactive isotope cobalt 60, which is used in nuclear medicine, being inadvertently mixed with steel scrap and being melted down at three Indian steel works.

By IANS New Delhi : Anil Ambani-owned Reliance Power will be formally awarded the 4,000-MW Krishnapatnam power project in Andhra Pradesh Friday after the company emerged as the lowest bidder for it, a top official announced here Thursday. Reliance Power turned out to be the lowest bidder as it quoted a tariff of Rs.2.33 per unit of electricity, Power Secretary Anil Razdan told a seminar on oil and gas held by the Observer Foundation Group.

By IANS, Mumbai : Indian equities markets Tuesday finished in the green for the second consecutive day following several positive signals both domestic and global that may have restored investor confidence somewhat, analysts said. Despite the arrest of a state-level politician and the resultant violence here Tuesday, Indian equities markets functioned undisturbed due to use of satellite-based communication technology and posted all round gains for the first time after three consecutive days of losses last week.

By IANS Jaipur : Policyholders of ICICI Prudential Life Insurance Co in Rajasthan will now be able to pay their premium in cash at 626 "e-Mitra" service centres spread across 13 districts of the state. The insurer has entered into a strategic partnership to this effect with the government of Rajasthan. e-Mitra is an e-governance initiative of the state government. Customers can now walk into the listed e-Mitra kiosks, produce their acknowledgement letters and policy numbers, and make their premium payments in cash.

New Delhi, Sep 28 (IANS) Indian IT bellwether Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) is planning to double its employee as well as client base within 2-3 years in Uruguay and Argentina to consolidate its business there. "This region has highly trained human resources, English language skills and an attractive cost structure, which makes it a natural base for exporting services to other countries," Mario Tucci, country manager-designate for TCS Uruguay and Argentina, said in a statement.

By DPA,

By IANS, Bhubaneswar : Birla Tyres, a unit of the BK Birla group company Kesoram Industries, Monday closed down its Orissa plant temporarily on account of falling sales, a company official said. "The plant will be closed till January 31 because of falling demand," a senior official at the unit told IANS on condition of anonymity because he is not authorised to speak to the media. "It will resume production on February 1," he said. Employees will not be paid during the shutdown. The unit employs some 2,200 people.

By IANS, Mumbai: India needs to return to the path of fiscal consolidation and take all necessary steps to moderate inflation, Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee said here Saturday.

By IANS, New Delhi : The government Thursday revised upwards the existing rates for the DAVP advertisements by 24 percent. “The revised rates would be applicable for the advertisements released on or after Sep 1,” an official statement from the information and broadcasting ministry said here Thursday. All categories of newspapers and periodicals empanelled with the directorate of advertising and visual publicity (DAVP) have been covered under the revised rates.

By IANS, Lucknow : A major theft from the pipeline of the state-owned Indian Oil Corp. has been detected in the Mirzapur district of Uttar Pradesh, police said Sunday. However, no arrests have been made so far. Company officials and police suspect involvement of an engineer or technical person in the theft.

By IANS, Thiruvananthapuram : Liquor shops in Kerala are well-stocked for the ongoing Onam season and alcohol sales are expected to touch Rs.2 billion (Rs.200 crore) during the 10-day festival. The Kerala State Beverages Corporation (KSBC), the sole wholesalers of Indian Made Foreign Liquor (IMFL) and beer in the state, said there has already been an increase in liquor sales since Sunday.

By IANS,

By IANS,

By IANS, Ahmedabad : Suzlon Energy Ltd, the fifth largest wind turbine maker globally, Monday announced it has successfully completed a 51 MW wind power project for Oil and Natural Gas Corp of India (ONGC). In a communication to the Bombay Stock Exchange, the company said the project is located at Motisindholi in the Kutch district of Gujarat. With this, ONGC, which produces 84 percent of the country's crude oil and natural gas, becomes the first public sector company to enter the wind energy sector.

By IANS, New Delhi : The union budget has failed to take steps to stop the misuse of diesel subsidy by private cars, said advocacy organisation Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) Saturday.

By IANS, Chennai : As the government moves to reconstitute the board of Maytas Infra Ltd, an associate firm of fraud-hit Satyam Computer Services, financial institution IFCI Limited says it is ready to accept a seat on it. "It is right on the part of the Indian government to approach the Company Law Board (CLB) to reconstitute the Maytas Infra board. Maytas Infra has to severe its connections with the Satyam Computers so that it does not suffer from a crisis of confidence," IFCI chairman and managing director Atul Kumar Rai told reporters Thursday.

By IANS, Mumbai : United Breweries' net profit soared 67 percent to Rs.69.3 million for the quarter ended Dec 31 as compared to Rs.41.5 million in the corresponding period of the previous year, the company said Tuesday. Its total income, however, declined 11 percent to Rs.917.5 million for the quarter under review from Rs.1,029.10 million in the corresponding period last year. The company's total expenditure in the quarter decreased 8 percent to Rs.510 million as compared to Rs.552 million in the corresponding quarter last year.

By IANS, Mumbai: The Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group Thursday said it was surprised to note a sudden increase in the output of gas from the Krishna-Godavari basin by Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Industries just few days after the matter was raised publicly. "This clearly confirms our view that the contractor (Reliance Industries) is holding the gas and only public scrutiny and comments are succeeding in putting pressure on the contractor to increase production," said J.P. Chalasani, chief executive of Reliance Power, which is part of the Anil Ambani group.

By IANS Chennai : India's four government-owned non-life insurers have collectively earned Rs.16.93 billion in premium during 1007-08, up from Rs.16.25 billion the previous year. But only three companies have logged positive growth in FY08. One posted a negative figure. According to provisional figures for last fiscal, the three companies that posted growth are United India Insurance Co Ltd (Rs.37.40 billion, from Rs.34.99 billion); New India Assurance Co Ltd (Rs.53 billion, from Rs.50.17 billion) and National Insurance Co Ltd (Rs.40.30 billion, from Rs.38.14 billion).

By IANS, New Delhi : March Networks, a Canada-based closed circuit television (CCTV) video systems provider, is in discussions with two transport corporations here to install CCTV cameras at their terminals. "We are in advanced discussions with DMRC (Delhi Metro Rail Corp) and DTC (Delhi Transport Corp) for putting up CCTV cameras in the stations, trains and bus terminals," March Networks president and chief executive Peter Strom told IANS. The development comes in the backdrop of a series of bomb blasts in the national capital in the past few weeks.

By Sunanda Parmeshwar, IANS Mumbai : Leading mobile service provider Vodafone Essar Ltd has moved the Bombay High Court challenging a notice issued by the income tax (IT) department regarding a levy of capital gains tax in the wake of the Vodafone-Hutch deal. This is perhaps the first time tax authorities are attempting to tax a transaction between two foreign companies involving transfer of an Indian asset. If the tax liability is established, it could amount to about $1.7 billion, according to the IT notice.

By IANS, Chennai : City-based banking, financial services and insurance (BFSI) software company Polaris Software has logged a 46 percent growth in its after tax profit for the first quarter of the current fiscal. According to a company statement issued here Thursday, the company closed the first quarter with an after tax profit of Rs.46.60 crore as against Rs.31.84 crore earned during the corresponding period the previous year.

By IANS, Mumbai : The shares of India's top telecom company Bharti Airtel opened strong on bourses here Wednesday, a day after it sealed a $10.7 billion deal to acquire the African assets of Kuwait's Zain. The bluechip, among the 30 scrips that are part of the sensitive index (Sensex) of the Bombay Stock Exchange, opened at Rs.312.10 and soon moved up to Rs.316.50, against the previous close at Rs.310.95. Some 10 minutes into trading, the scrip was up 1.33 percent at Rs.315.10.

By Prensa Latina Port of Spain : Countries from Central America and the Caribbean will come together to discuss a free trade agreement Wednesday in Trinidad and Tobago. The head of state of the "C4" grouping - El Salvador, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Honduras and Panama - voiced interest in working out a trade agreement with the 15-strong Caribbean trade community CARICOM at meetings held in February and May. Leroy Sheffer, of Panama's Commerce and Industry Ministry, pointed out that the Caribbean is a valuable market for milk, cheese, beef, cardboard and tomatoes.

By IANS,

By Manish Chand, IANS, New York : Putting behind them the mistrust sparked by China's perceived negative role in the NSG, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh held talks with Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao Wednesday and agreed to push cooperation in civilian nuclear energy between the countries. "They had a very warm and friendly meeting. The two countries have cooperated in the past and we propose to do so in the future too," Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon told reporters.

By IANS New Delhi : The state-owned Steel Authority of India Ltd (SAIL) and Tata Steel will jointly undertake coal mining in India. They agreed here Thursday to set up a joint venture company for this purpose. "SAIL and Tata Steel Ltd signed an agreement at New Delhi on January 3 to establish a 50:50 joint venture (JV) company for coal mining in India," Tata Steel informed the Bombay Stock Exchange. "The JV agreement was signed by SAIL Chairman S.K. Roongta and Tata Steel's managing director B. Muthuraman," the company said.

By P.K. Balachandran, IANS Colombo : Monday's hike in the administered prices of petrol and diesel in Sri Lanka is bad news for the already overburdened consumer, but good news for the cash-strapped petroleum companies, including the Indian-owned Lanka Indian Oil Corp (LIOC). "The hike will help the oil sector stabilise and grow. The government's approach to pricing has been practical," K. Ramakrishnan, chairman and managing director of LIOC, told IANS Monday.

By Arun Kumar, IANS,

By Arun Kumar, IANS Washington : With India's rapid growth over the past decade contributing to most of the progress in South Asia, the region will likely reduce extreme poverty by half by 2015, one of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), says a new World Bank-IMF report. But most countries in South Asia will fall short on the MDGs, a set of eight globally agreed development goals with a due date of 2015, warns Global Monitoring Report: MDGs and the Environment - Agenda for Inclusive and Sustainable Development.

By IANS, New Delhi : India Friday allowed its state-run fuel retailers to cut prices of gasoline and diesel for the first time in 22 months to give a boost to its slowing economy, with cushion coming from the $100 per barrel drop in global crude oil prices. Companies like Indian Oil Corp were allowed to cut prices by Rs.5 a litre on gasoline and Rs.2 a litre on diesel. The prices of cooking gas distributed to households under a subsidised system were, however, kept unchanged.

By IANS, New Delhi : The current fiscal year has started on a sour note for India's merchandise exports sector with the value of such shipments down 33.2 percent at $10.74 billion in April against $16.08 billion in the same month of the previous fiscal. Imports, too, fell 36.6 percent to $15.75 billion in April from $24.82 billion in the like month of last year, according to official data on external trade released by the commerce and industry ministry Monday.

By Soudhriti Bhabani, Singur : A few scattered bamboo structures, dumped tarpaulin, and trucks filled with decorators' cloth for covering podiums were all that remained Monday at the the Tata Motors Nano project site here after days of sit-in protest by Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee. Ground zero breathed easy as protest podiums were dismantled after a solution to the Singur land row was reached between the ruling Left Front government and the opposition, which wanted 400 acres inside the factory site, acquired for the project from farmers, to be returned.

By IANS,

By IANS, New Delhi : India's annual rate of inflation, based on wholesale prices, rose sharply to 7.31 percent in December from 4.78 percent in the previous month, official data showed Thursday. The annual inflation rate was 6.15 percent in December 2008. In December, prices of food articles jumped 19.17 percent, as per data released by the commerce ministry. During the month under review, the index for primary articles was up 1.2 percent, while that for fuel, power, light and lubricants rose 0.1 percent. The index for manufactured products was up 0.2 percent.

By IANS, Dubai : Banks and financial companies dominate the top 150 listed companies in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) region, according to a new research. The research, conducted by Shuaa Capital on behalf of the region's leading business publication Gulf Business for its September 2008 edition, found banks and financial companies accounted for 42 percent of the top 150 listed companies in the GCC, numbering 63. The GCC comprises Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

By Gurmukh Singh, IANS, Toronto : There is more gloomy news in Canada, with the latest data showing that 34,000 more full-time jobs disappeared last month. The Canadian market and dollar slipped lower Friday on the dismal monthly data. This is the second successive month when huge job losses have been reported. More than 71,000 jobs were lost in November. With the latest job losses, the unemployment rate in Canada has risen to 6.6 percent, up from 6.3 percent in November.

By IANS, Mumbai: India Inc. found US President Barack Obama a "sincere and dynamic" person willing to further business relations between the two countries, a top official said Saturday.

By DPA, Tokyo : Japan's benchmark Nikkei 225 Stock Average Wednesday nosedived to the lowest closing level since June 2003 in a five-day losing streak on heavy selloffs amid mounting concerns over the global recession. The Nikkei plunged 952.58 points, or 9.38 percent, to end at 9,203.32. The broader Topix index of all first-section issues fell 78.6 points, or 8.04 percent, to 899.01. Wednesday's losses in the Tokyo market were the third biggest one-day drop in post-war Japan.

By IANS, Mumbai : India's markets barometer, the 30-share sensitive index (Sensex) of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), shot up over 300 points Friday as the Finance minister announced huge public investments along with a reduction in surcharge for corporates in his budget speech. At 12.36 p.m., the Sensex which opened at 16,255.33 points was ruling at 16,555.87 points, 301.67 points or 1.85 percent higher than its previous close at 16,254.2 points.

By Muhammad Najeeb, IANS, Islamabad : Confirming that tenders for the import of wheat would be called within a few days, official sources say Pakistan may import wheat from neighbouring India to meet the current shortage. The Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) of the cabinet Tuesday approved a proposal to import 1.5 million tonnes of wheat to overcome the prevailing wheat crisis in the country. Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gillani ordered that 250,000 tonnes of wheat should be imported immediately because the price in the world market was showing a downward trend.

By IANS, New York : An India-born former police officer in Washington has won $1.65 million in an out-of-court settlement in his racial bias lawsuit in which he claimed he was called a "sandnigger" by a superior, received racially explicit voicemails and was dispatched alone to confront an armed man. In his suit, Navin Sharma, 52, who worked for the police department in Vancouver city in the US for nine years, said he was subjected to seven years of racial harassment, which began when he testified against senior members of the department in a 1998 internal affairs investigation.

By IANS, New Delhi : Following are the reduction in fares announced in the interim railway budget presented Friday: * Rs.1 reduction in passenger fares on tickets costing up to Rs.50 for non suburban mail, express and ordinary passenger trains for journey above 10 km; This reduction will not be applicable for second class rail journey up to 10 km * Fares of second class and sleeper class fares of all trains reduced * Fares of AC first class, AC 2-tier, AC 3-tier and AC chair car also reduced by 2 percent

By IANS,

By DPA,

By IANS,

New Delhi : Reacting to the controversy over the petroleum ministry seeking a tenure extension for Oil and Natural Gas Corp. (ONGC) chairman Sudhir...

By IANS, Bangalore : Back office operations firm Mphasis Ltd is acquiring Fortify Infrastructure Services, a global provider of offshore-based remote IT operations and management (ROM) services, in an all-cash deal, the company said Thursday. Mphasis did not disclose the transaction value. The strategic acquisition will give Mphasis access to marquee customers, a talent pool of professionals and a proven platform to offer outcome-based services beyond the service level agreements, the company said in a statement here.

By IANS, New Delhi: Corporate Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid Thursday said his ministry had granted no special favours to Mahindra Sataym in giving it extra time to state its book of accounts. "No special favour is being shown to anyone. No rigidity will be shown either. I think the best that can be done for the stakeholders is being done by them. Whatever assistance they have asked, we have given," Khurshid told reporters here.

By P.K. Balachandran, IANS Colombo : Colombo Port has been a major trans-shipment hub in the Indian Ocean region for a long time. But the 'mega shipping hub' status that Sri Lanka is seeking is still a long way off, shipping experts say. Former ports minister Dilan Perera said Sri Lanka had the "advantage of location" to be a "mega hub" of the South Asian region. "There is a yawning gap in South Asia which Sri Lanka is well qualified to fill," he said.

By IANS, Mumbai : It was Black Friday at Indian equities markets as they finished with their worst ever losses in history both in points as well as percentage terms. Large-scale selling by foreign institutional investors belied expectations of investors. On top of that, the central bank, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), kept all key rates unchanged in its mid-term policy review Friday. Plus, poor global cues played havoc with Indian markets.

By IANS, Mumbai : A benchmark index for Indian equities Wednesday fell further into the red a little after noon Wednesday and was 335 points below its previous close. The 30-scrip sensitive index (Sensex) of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), which opened at 16,708.6 points, was at 16,432.74 points, down 347.42 points or 2.07 percent from its previous close at 16,780.46 points. Banking majors ICICI and SBI were the main contributors to the Sensex's drag.

By IANS,

By IANS, Mumbai : Indian equity markets started with a loss Thursday, mirroring weak global markets. Power, realty and capital goods stocks were under selling pressure in initial trade. The 30-share benchmark index of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), the Sensex, opened with a loss of 133.94 points at 13,530.68 points. Ten minutes into trading, it fell further to 13,290.97, a loss of 373.65 points or 2.73 percent from its closing figure Wednesday.

By IANS

New Delhi : The Board of Approvals (BoA) in the commerce ministry will meet Thursday to consider 41 special economic zones (SEZs), including Mukesh Ambani's multi-product SEZ in Navi Mumbai.