From Mistry quits Tata boards to Russian ambassador's murder: 5 key developments

In other news, interest rates on provident fund deposits slashed to 8.65% for FY17

Business Standard brings to you a list of five key developments across the country.

Cyrus Mistry resigns from all listed Tata Group firms

After a bitter eight-week boardroom battle against Ratan Tata’s “illegal coup”, ousted Tata Sons chairman Cyrus Mistry on Monday quit from the boards of six listed companies, including Tata Motors and Indian Hotels. He vowed to shift his fight to a “larger platform” as the “coercive action taken by Tatas against various stakeholders was making him uneasy”. In an interview to Business Standard, Mistry promised to take his fight against the Tatas to a legal forum but did not give details. “In the past eight weeks, I saw a lot of coercive action from the Tatas towards shareholders, debt holders and employees, which is making all the three uncomfortable. In various representations to shareholders, I had said it was not about me or about my position. My resignation proves that," Mistry said.

EPFO fixes 8.65% interest rate for PF deposits

Forty million subscribers will get a four-year low interest rate of 8.65 per cent on their money in Employees Provident Fund for the current financial year, against 8.8 per cent they received in 2015-16. The highest decision-making body, Central Board of Trustees (CBT), of the Employees Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) took the decision at a meeting in Bengaluru despite objections raised by the trade unions.  The decision by the body to cut interest rate was taken in light of low surplus and the finance ministry’s aim of lowering interest rates on other saving schemes.

RBI says banks cannot decline pre-2005 notes

Banks can’t turn away customers depositing pre-2005 currency notes, including the junked Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 ones, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) said on Monday. In a clarification, RBI said these specified bank notes (SBNs) would also include pre-2005 notes in the denominations of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000. “Banks should accept deposits of pre-2005 banknotes in the denominations of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 under the scheme, but not reissue these. These notes can be exchanged at RBI offices only,” the regulator said in a clarification issued on Monday.

Jobs market strongest in a decade: Yellen

The US job market is at its strongest since the start of the financial crisis and there are signs workers will start to see the benefits in their paychecks, Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen said on Monday. In the first speech by a Fed official since the central bank raised interest rates last week for only the second time in a decade, Yellen was moderately optimistic about job prospects, even though the economy is growing slowly. She told graduates of the University of Baltimore that "after years of a slow economic recovery, you are entering the strongest job market in nearly a decade."

Russian Ambassador to Turkey killed

Shouting "Don't forget Aleppo! Don't forget Syria!" a Turkish policeman in a suit and tie fatally shot Russia's ambassador to Turkey in front of stunned onlookers at a photo exhibit on Monday. Police killed the assailant after a shootout. Ambassador Andrei Karlov, 62, was several minutes into a speech at the embassy-sponsored exhibition in the Turkish capital of Ankara when a man fired at least eight shots, according to an AP photographer in the audience.