Daily News Roundup - Jan 1 2009

The Government is considering a proposal to allow foreign airlines to pick up equity stake in domestic carriers, but with riders. (ET)

A Texas court will hold a hearing on the legal tussle between Upaid, a UK-based mobile services provider, and Satyam Computer Services on January 7. (ET)

ICICI Bank has brought down interest rates on home loans both for existing as well as new customers by 0.5%. The bank has also lowered its deposit rates by up to 75 basis points. (ET)

LIC Housing Finance has cut interest rates by 75 basis points, effective Jan. 1, for its existing home loan borrowers after a reduction in its cost of funds. (ET)

Private-sector lender, Bank of Rajasthan (BoR) on Wednesday slashed its benchmark prime lending rate (BPLR) by 0.5 per cent to 15.5 per cent. (ET)

State-owned oil companies cut aviation turbine fuel (ATF) prices by 6.8%, making it the eighth straight reduction since September. (ET)

Bajaj brothers, Rahul and Shishir, on Wednesday withdrew their respective petitions from the Company Law Board (CLB), ending the five-year-old legal battle over division of family properties. (ET)

Public sector Allahabad Bank on Wednesday said that Life Insurance Corporation of India has hiked its stake in the bank by 2.10 per cent to 10.94. (ET)

ONGC Videsh (OVL), the overseas investment arm of ONGC, formally acquired Imperial Energy as over 96.82% sharesholders of the UK-based company have accepted its open offer. (ET)

Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) is in talks to win two large BPO contracts as a consequence of its acquisition of Citigroup’s BPO captive, Citigroup Global Services (CGSL). (ET)

PTC India, the country’s largest electricity trading company, will set up a joint venture with Singapore-based firm Asian Infratech for identifying and acquiring companies overseas. (ET)

Aurobindo Pharma Ltd. said on Wednesday it received the final nod from the US Food and Drug Administration for its stavudine tablets and oral solution. (ET)

Real-estate firm Omaxe Ltd said on Wednesday it has received an order worth Rs 200 crore to build two jails in Punjab. (ET)

HFCL-promoter Mahendra Nahata and the Dhoots of Videocon Group may soon arrive at a solution to end the corporate battle over Datacom. (ET)

The domestic Indian IT/ITeS market will grow at 13.4% in 2009, the slowest since 2003, according to intelligence firm, IDC India. (ET)

The country’s total external debt stood at $222.61 billion at the end of September this year, marginally lower than the $223.81 billion at the end of June. (ET)

Telecom tariffs may fall significantly. Sector regulator TRAI on Wednesday set the ball rolling for lower tariffs by seeking the industry's views on reducing the interconnect charges (IUC). (ET)

A sudden 21% jump in public expenditure in November coupled with a mere 8.8% growth in revenues saw the gross fiscal deficit grow to a massive 132.4% of the budgeted fiscal deficit of Rs 133,287 crore for the entire year. (ET)

The current account deficit was $12.5 billion during July-September 2008 as against $4.3 billion in the same period last fiscal. (ET)