Congress party's problems are far from over in Maharashtra. After humiliating defeat in the crucial elections to the BrihanMumbai Municipal Corporation from the saffron Shiv Sena led alliance and poor performance in polls to the local bodies compared with its ally NCP, the party cut a sorry figure after the police filed FIR against former president of Mumbai unit Kripashankar Singh and his family members under various sections of the Prevention of Corruption Act and the Indian Penal Code in connection with a disproportionate assets. Singh, who was until recently party's &quot;man Friday,&quot; was facing charges of cheating, forgery, destruction of evidence and criminal conspiracy. Singh, under whose leadership party lost to the saffron alliance, was also charged by party leaders of selling tickets and giving nominations to lackeys while neglecting the loyalists. Singh is likely to be arrested soon.

Business Standard

Standard Chartered Bank, the largest foreign lender in the country with a network of 94 branches, on Wednesday said its pre-tax profit from India business declined 33 per cent to $804 million in 2011, compared with $1.2 billion a year earlier. Lower income, higher expenses, and an increase in provisions led to the fall in earnings.

StanChart India pre-tax profit falls 33% in 2011

Trades between FIIs generated a volume of Rs 55 crore on the BSE Thursday-an decrease of 65% from Rs 157 crore clocked on Wednesday. As many as five stocks witnessed trades of 22 lakh shares on Thursday.

FII-TO-FII: Grasim Ind traded at 5% premium

The Union Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) is testing the feasibility of offshore wind power development in states like Tamil Nadu and Gujarat.

Centre studying offshore wind power potential in TN, Gujarat

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) on Thursday warned investors against dealing with unauthorised portfolio management schemes (PMS).

Sebi warns investors against PMS frauds

South Korean steel major Posco, which is facing protests of the locals over land acquisition for its 12 million tonne steel project in Orissa, may revise project cost upward by 20 per cent due to inordinate delay in getting the project off the ground.

Posco may increase Orissa plant investment by 20%

Harvard Business School&rsquo;s (HBS) famous alumnus, Ratan Tata, has gifted a classroom to his alma mater, which has been looking to set up a permanent facility to provide executive education programmes in India. The classroom at the Taj Lands End hotel, Mumbai, will be an amphitheatre-style classroom, fashioned after the one at Harvard Business School in Boston.

Ratan Tata gifts a classroom to Harvard 

As a step forward to provide micro-nutrient based fertilisers to country's farmers, Indian Farmers Fertilisers Co-operative Ltd (IFFCO) has set up a zinc sulphate monohydrate plant at Kandla having an annual capacity of 30,000 tonnes per annum.

IFFCO sets up 30K TPA zinc sulphate plant at Kandla

The new year seems to have brought some cheer to auto makers in the domestic industry, with 10 of the country&rsquo;s 19 major manufacturers recording a growth of 12 per cent and selling 250,545 passenger vehicles (PV) in February.

Sales rev up for domestic auto makers

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Thursday indicated it would prescribe higher capital adequacy norms than those proposed under the Basel III framework. This would help sustain the advantage of healthy financial profiles that Indian banks currently enjoy.

RBI for more Tier-I capital adequacy than Basel III norms

An allocation of&nbsp; Rs 4,000 crore has been sought in the 2012-13 budget for providing housing facilities in Karnataka. A survey has revealed nine lakh poor without a roof over their head in the State.

Rs 4,000 cr sought for housing in Karnataka

University of Agricultural Sciences (UAS) Dharwad has developed and released several crop breeds that include heat tolerance capacity, resistant to rust and leaf bloch diseases. The varsity has released new wheat breed UAS-304 which is having a yield potential of 42-46 quintal per hectare. New paddy variety Siri-1253 is leaf and neck blast resistant breed which is recommended for cultivation in rain-fed midland situation.

UAS introduces new crop breeds

With telecom giant Vodafone India considering an initial public offering (IPO), the company on Thursday announced a major organisational revamp. While Sunil Sood was appointed chief operating officer, Sanjoy Mukherjee took over as chief commercial officer.

Vodafone revamps top management

Tata Communications Ltd (TCL) said it might make a cash offer for Cable &amp; Wireless (C&amp;W), setting up a potential rivalry with Vodafone Group Plc to win control of the owner of Britain&rsquo;s largest business fibre network. Talks are &ldquo;at a very preliminary stage&rdquo; and TCL must decide whether it would make an offer by March 29, the company said on Thursday.

Tata Comm evaluates cash offer for C&W in rival bid to Vodafone

Some 86 companies, including 22 first-time recruiters, participated in the process. The average salary last year was Rs 15.54 lakh, and the highest domestic package was Rs 26 lakh.

JBIMS achieves 100% placement for 2012 batch

Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) were net sellers of Rs 126.52 crore (provisional) today, according to data released by BSE.

FIIs net sellers of Rs 127 cr in cash mkt today

Honda Motorcycle &amp; Scooter India Pvt. Ltd. (HMSI) today announced that its senior Board member N K Rattan has resigned as Vice President &ndash; Sales &amp; Marketing. He was handling portfolio of Operating Head &ndash; Sales Planning and Marketing and Operating Head - Corporate Affairs.

Honda Motorcycle marketing head resigns

Country's top car maker, Maruti Suzuki today reported a 6.5% rise in February car sales at 118,949 units as compared to 111,645 units in the same month last year.

Maruti Feb car sales up 6.5% at 118,950 units

ElectraCard Services (ECS), an electronic payments solution provider, has developed a new switch platform 'electra switch- iTx series' for ATM and point of sale (POS) network for financial institutions. iTx series is designed to support EMV, multiple institutions, time zones and language enabling users to consolidate existing platforms into single platform catering all needs of banking sector.

ECS develops 'electraswitch' for payments

ONGC&rsquo;s overseas exploration arm ONGC Videsh Ltd (OVL) and GAIL India have confirmed their interest in bidding for UK-based Cove Energy. The consortium may have to quote a price in excess of $1.77 billion, the amount already quoted by Thai firm PTT.

BS Reporter