Mumbai violence, Jamia Nagar encounter rock LS
Lok Sabha was on Monday adjourned till 4 pm following uproar over violence in Bodo areas of Assam.Earlier on Monday, the attack on some north Indians in Mumbai by activists of Maharashtra Navnirman Sena and Shiv Sena and 'new revelations' about the Batla House encounter in Delhi led to uproarious scenes in the Lok Sabha on Monday.The House was adjourned for an hour soon after it assembled for the day as BSP members Akbar Ahmad Dumpy and Iliyas Azmi rushed to the well of the House flashing copies of a newspaper carrying reports on a "new version" on the encounter.The BSP members were demanding a judicial inquiry into the Batla House encounter.

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Jet chief urges FM to lower taxes on ATF
Jet Airways Chairman Naresh Goyal on Monday met Finance Minister P Chidambaram to seek tax concessions on aviation turbine fuel as part of measures to overcome the crisis that has hit the Indian civil aviation sector.According to sources, Goyal met Chidambaram at North Block this morning and drew attention of the finance minister to the problems that airlines in the country were facing.Goyal is understood to have asked Chidambaram to consider the demand of airlines to rationalise taxation and levies on ATF, which has become one of the biggest issues of carriers in India.Jet Airways alone had a total outstanding fuel bill of Rs 859 crore, of which it had defaulted on payment of bills which were due on September 25 and October 5.Similarly, Kingfisher owed Rs 110 crore to IOC of which Rs 60 crore remained unpaid after expiry of the credit period.


Tata-owned Corus to cut steel production

Tata-owned steel giant Corus has announced plans to cut production in Europe by up to one million tonnes over the next three months due to slowing demand."The decision is aimed at aligning steel production with demand, which is now affected by the consequences of the global financial crisis," the group said in a statement here.The company said that production at its plants outside Europe will not be affected by the reduced production targets.Corus, Europe's second largest steelmaker, now produces more than 20 million tonnes of crude steel a year.




Rupee strengthens against dollar
Rupee strengthened on Monday as hopes grew of likely capital inflows into local shares, with some dollar weakness against other major currencies overseas also helping sentiment. Rupee was at 48.76/77 per dollar, 0.2 percent stronger than 48.88/89 at close on Friday.

Indian shares on US bourses defy crisis, gain $7-bn

Even as the Indian markets took a beating this week, their counterparts listed on American bourses gained nearly $7 billion, defying the worldwide market gloom.
Led by IT major Wipro and private sector lender ICICI Bank, the 16 Indian companies trading as American Depository Receipts coughed up about 6.86 billion dollars for the week ending October 17. Wipro witnessed a gain of $2.44 billion while ICICI Bank scrip, which had taken a severe beating in recent times in the domestic market, rose as much as $1.25 billion.
Another leading private sector lender HDFC Bank's market capitalisation rose $494 million.
Swinging between the extremes, global markets including the American bourses had seen high volatility, with Japan's Nikkei touching a 20-year low.
Further, the US benchmark Dow Jones Industrial Average witnessed one of the worst trading sessions in decades, before the closing the week in the green.

GE gearing up to weather recession
The global financial crisis has impacted one of the world's largest firms General Electric that has seen its finance arm take a hit. In an exclusive interview to NDTV, Jeffrey Immelt, the CEO of the $180 billion American giant GE says he is paranoid about US recession and is gearing up for any eventuality. Already GE has raised $15 billion in the past few weeks but the company’s top boss says in these volatile times you just have to expect the unexpected. NDTV's Shweta Rajpal Kohli caught up with him at the company’s global headquarters in Fairfield, Connecticut. Excerpts from the interview:
NDTV: Tough times for the financial industry and American economy, so how badly is the crisis impacting GE?Immelt: There has been a real shock to the financial system that has led to a liquidity issue across the global economy. The financial service industry has really been in a tough phase and our business reflected it. However, the industrial economy is still good. If you're an exporter like we are, then there are still pockets of growth. But everybody is concerned about what’s the outcome of the crisis. People are also concerned about the future of the global economy, so we are all very cautious about what happens next.