The Hindu Business Line : Weekly News Round-up

Full 60 hours after the first shots were fired in Wednesday's terror attacks in Mumbai, the battle between security forces and the terrorists which continued to rage till late Friday at the three different locations, including two top luxury hotels - the Taj and the Trident-Oberoi, came to an end on Saturday morning.

Over 200 people including 14 police and NSG personnel were killed in the terrorist mayhem. In the commando operations, 14 terrorists were killed and one captured alive.

On Thursday, the security forces had regained control of the Oberoi-Trident hotel and the Nariman House where five Israeli hostages were killed.

The NSG commandos succeeded in freeing 200 people who were holed up inside the Oberoi and Trident Hotels, by storming the building late on Friday night.

The terrorist siege of Mumbai ended only by Saturday morning with security forces killing three gunmen in the flushing-out operations to secure the iconic Taj hotel, nearly 60 hours after a band of ultras struck at various centres in the country's financial capital

The annual Wholesale Price Index-based inflation rose 8.84 per cent for the week ended November 15, marginally down from the previous week's yearly rise of 8.90 per cent. The latest WPI inflation rate was the lowest reading since May 17 and well below early August's peak of 12.91 per cent.

The annual rate of inflation stood at 3.35 per cent during the corresponding week of the previous year.

Punjab National Bank has decided to reduce its benchmark prime lending rate by 100 basis points from 13.50 per cent to 12.50 per cent with effect from December 1.

The revised rate would be applicable in respect of all existing and new accounts linked with benchmark prime lending rate.

PNB has also, at its board meeting last Wednesday, decided to reduce its peak deposit rate from 10.50 per cent to 9.50 per cent for deposits of 1 year to less than 3 years

The Union Food and Agriculture Minister, Mr Sharad Pawar, on Wednesday has ruled out any immediate hikes in edible oil import duties or relaxations in current rice export restrictions.

Speaking at the Economic Editors' Conference here on Wednesday, the Minister said the Government would take any action on raising import duty on edible oils only if oilseed prices in the domestic market fell below the official minimum support price levels.

Currently, crude palm, sunflower and rapeseed oil attract zero basic customs duty, while all refined oils (including soyabean) are chargeable to 7.5 per cent duty

The Department of Telecom has changed its earlier decision to conduct simultaneous auction for third generation mobile and wireless broadband access spectrum. The spectrum will now be auctioned in two phases.

While the bidding for broadband spectrum based on technologies such as WiMAX will be held on January 16, 2009, the radio waves for 3G mobile services are likely to be put on the block in the second phase starting February 9, 2009.

With a steep fall in global crude prices, the Government is mulling passing on the benefits to the retail consumers of petroleum products.

The Petroleum Minister, Mr Murli Deora, said last Tuesday that following a drop in the international crude prices there is an expectation that prices need to be reduced. He said that can be done only after the Assembly elections. Mr Deora was speaking to newspersons at the sidelines of the India-CIS Roundtable on hydrocarbons.

HCL Technologies' proposed mega-acquisition of UK-based SAP consulting company Axon Group is nearly complete. A majority of Axon shareholders last Monday voted in favour of the Indian company's 650-pence a share offer. But HCL Technologies is still not ruling out the possibility of a new bidder jumping into the fray

Once completed, this would mark the largest buy-out in the Indian IT industry - surpassing Wipro's $600-million acquisition of Infocrossing.

Jet Airways proposes to cut salaries of its staff by 5-25 per cent. The pay-cut will be applicable to all employees drawing more than Rs 75,000 a month.

The reduction will be according to salary grades; five per cent for those in the Rs 75,000- Rs 2 lakh bracket, 10 per cent for Rs 2-Rs 5 lakh bracket and 20 per cent for those drawing up to 10 lakh. For the top management, the pay cut will be 25 per cent. For pilots, the cut will be up to 20 per cent.

Compiled by M J Madhavan
Podcast by S Vasudevan