There’s no room for hardening of interest rates and the Reserve Bank of India should maintain status quo on the rates to allow the industry to make fresh investments, Rajan Bharti Mittal, newly elected president of industry body FICCI said.

“Fresh investment announcement have begun across sectors and further increase in interest rates will only hamper economic growth,” Mr Mittal said.

The Supreme Court filed an appeal before itself challenging a Delhi high court ruling that the Chief Justice of India (CJI) was covered by the Right to Information (RTI) Act.

By doing so, the apex court has raised the broader issues of conflict of interest and of whether judges can judge themselves.

The govt today said it is ready with the regulations to give teeth to the competition watchdog CCI for examining M&A’s and would notify it once the Commission develops expertise in tackling such cases.

A lot of capacity building is still required …If we notify it today, you know we are not ready because after we notify it a lot of people will come, it will become a very major problem.” Corporate Affairs Minister told.

The Government has informed Lok Sabha that CMC, co- chaired by Secretary, Ministry of Corporate Affairs and Chairman, SEBI has been set up to look into issues relating to co’s that had come out with public issues and vanished.

Specific criteria have been adopted by CMC for identification of such vanishing companies.

The Government has informed Lok Sabha that the successor in interest to the Satyam Computer Services Ltd. brought to the notice of SEBI that SEC of the United States of America, vide its letter dated September 17, 2009 offered it the opportunity to make a Wells Submission to a notice from the Commission for action against the company.

Soon after finance minister Pranab Mukherjee announced a 16% customs duty on power sold by producers in special economic zones (SEZs) to outside customers, the government has initiated steps to recover dues from producers like Reliance Jamnagar Infrastructure.

The revenue department has asked the commerce ministry – the agency that collects taxes from SEZ units – to recover dues from these power producers since June 2009. According to the finance ministry’s

Entertainment content (movie and music) will be 10-15 per cent more expensive, following the proposals of the Finance Bill 2010.

According to the Bill, service tax will be levied on any “temporary transfer of copyright or permitting the use or enjoyment of, any copyright defined in the Copyright Act, 1957 except the following: original literary, dramatic, musical and artistic works [Section 13(a) of the Copyright Act, 1957].”

Global audit firm PricewaterhouseCoopers has announced the launch of its human resources service ‘Saratoga’ in India.

“Saratoga is the most extensive database of HR metrics available globally. We are launching it in India and we have already got an immense response from Indian companies,” PwC Partner and Global HRM network leader Richard Phelps said.

Disinvestment proceeds of the govt could be higher than the estimate of Rs 25,000 crore for 2009-10. It has already raised Rs 13,621 crore through disinvestment in four public sector companies.

Dilution of stake in National Mineral Development Corporation, the fifth public sector undertaking to come out with a public offer this year, is likely to fetch the government more than the remaining Rs 11,388 crore.

In a bid to meet year-end targets, banks have once again begun offering higher interest rates on bulk deposits than what they offer on retail deposits.

Traditionally, banks had been offering higher rate of interest on bulk deposits — where the sum deposited exceeds Rs 1 crore — over retail deposits on grounds that fixed deposits are more cost effective.