Business

A decision on setting up 'Payments Banks' or specialised banks to provide services to small businesses will be taken only after looking into various aspects including arbitrage issues, RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan said on Wednesday.

India's trade deficit narrowed in January, helped by a 77 per cent drop in imports of gold and silver while exports ticked up, improving the outlook for the country's fragile current account balance.

According to survey, factory output is estimated to grow by 1.5 per cent during the fiscal as against the previous projection of 1.7 per cent.

This would pave the way for new entrants like Air Asia and Tata - Singapore Airlines to start operations as soon as they launch.

Gold was little changed on Thursday in thin year-end trade, but looked set to post its biggest annual loss in more than three decades as rallying equities and optimism about a global economic recovery dented its safe-haven appeal.

Despite high-level exits since June this year, Infosys shares still retain a gain of nearly 50 per cent since its founder N R Narayana Murthy returned to the helm of affairs at the country's second largest IT firm.

To ensure greater efficacy in exercise of its new powers, market regulator Sebi's board on Tuesday cleared new norms for its search and seizure operations, settlement proceedings, refund to investors and crackdown on illicit money-pooling schemes.

A fall in vegetable prices is likely to ease headline inflation and retail inflation to 6.5 per cent and 9.20 per cent respectively in December, Prime Minister's Economic Advisory Council (PMEAC) Chairman C Rangarajan said on Sunday.

Software major Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) has emerged as the biggest wealth creator over the past five years, while Reliance Industries and RCom top the list of companies where investors lost the most in terms of market capitalisation, says a study.

Inflation is forecast to remain close to 9-month highs in November, putting further pressure on the RBI to follow up on its back-to-back interest rate hikes despite slowing economic growth.

Blue chips rose again. Axis Bank Ltd provisionally rose 3.8 per cent, while ICICI Bank Ltd ended 0.7 per cent higher.

The Crime Branch has arrested Ram Niwas Pal, the co-mastermind of Speak Asia scam from the Bangalore airport.

Exuding confidence that growth rate will climb to 6 per cent next year, Finance Minister P Chidambaram on Friday said government will in next 6 months liberalise capital markets and financial sector to help economy return to high growth trajectory.

Pillai has entered the Forbes India Rich List for the first time, at no. 34 with an estimated net worth of $1.7 billion.

He said that the exchange rate of rupee on the present day is a better reflection of its true value and said that volatility and speculation have been contained.

The Nifty ended at 6122.90, down 80.45 points or 1.30 per cent.