An employee walks between parked Hyundai cars ready for shipment at a port in ChennaiCar sales in the rapidly growing Indian market rose 20.8% in November as demand peaked in the festival season, but analysts cautioned the rate of growth would slow against high comparisons, a limited supply of components and a possible rise in interest rates.Car sales grew to 161,497 units in November, according to data from the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM). Sales of trucks and buses, a key indicator of economic health, grew 18.3% from a year earlier.Demand for cars is rising rapidly in India, which is Asia's third-largest economy and is growing at nearly 9% annually. Domestic auto sales have grown 28.4% since April through November YoY.While auto sales in Asia's third-largest economy are expected to continue to grow, that kind of growth is not sustainable when compared to the robust growth witnessed last year.November sales were buoyed by India's festive season, which starts in early September and peaks in November after the Hindu festival of Diwali, when it is considered auspicious to buy big-ticket items and when most people get their annual bonuses.

December 8: The day in pictures


A worker is seen at the Jinyuan Company&#39;s smelting workshop in China&#39;s Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region

Toyota Tsusho Corp, a Toyota Motor Corp group company, said on Wednesday it will build a rare earth processing plant in India and start shipping 3,000 to 4,000 tonnes a year of the minerals to Japan in 2012.

Japan&#39;s trading houses are scrambling to secure new sources of rare earths - vital for making auto parts and high-tech products - after shipments from dominant producer China stalled after it cut export quotas.

The plant, to be built in Orissa by the end of 2011, will manufacture rare earths from by-products of the process of extracting uranium and thorium fuel from monazite minerals at Indian Rare Earth Ltd. The firm is a unit of the Nuclear Power Corp of India.

Japan&#39;s Shin-Etsu Chemical Co will provide technical support.

Toyota Tsusho plans imports including cerium, neodymium and lanthanum, a company s

A worker is seen at the Jinyuan Company&#39;s smelting workshop in China&#39;s Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region

Toyota Tsusho Corp, a Toyota Motor Corp group company, said on Wednesday it will build a rare earth processing plant i

A Raja speaks during a news conference in New Delhi 

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) raided the homes and offices of a former telecoms minister Andimuthu Raja in connection with an alleged $39 billion corruption scam, which has sparked a political deadlock in Asia&#39;s third largest economy.

The opposition has forced the parliament to stay shut since early November, demanding a joint inquiry into a telecoms licence and spectrum scandal in 2007-2008 that a government auditor said may have cost India $39 billion in revenues.

The move against Raja may help the beleaguered coalition government placate the opposition and break the parliamentary deadlock, which has stalled the passage of key economic reform bills.

Although there is little threat to the coalition government, the scandals have eroded its political capital since an impressive election victory last year, and have become a test of how Prime Minister Manmohan Singh tackl

A Raja speaks during a news conference in New Delhi 

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) raided the homes and offices of a former telecoms minister Andimuthu Raja in connection with an alleged $39 billion corruption scam, wh

Sundar Pichai, vice president of product management for Google, holds a netbook that runs the company&#39;s Chrome OS during the company&#39;s event in San Francisco 

The first laptops powered by Google Inc&#39;s Chrome operating system will reach store shelves months later than expected and miss the holiday shopping season as the Internet company fixes software issues.

The Web-centric computers, intended as an incursion into territory dominated for years by Microsoft Corp and Apple Inc, will ship around the middle of 2011.

Google, the world&#39;s largest Internet search engine, is holding off launching the Chrome-based PCs until it can fix some software bugs and make sure that the computers are compatible with other devices such as digital cameras, Google product manager Sundar Pichai said on Tuesday.

&#39;Amazing progress, but we aren&#39;t fully done yet,&#39; Pichai told reporters at a press briefing in San Francisco.

Sundar Pichai, vice president of product management for Google, holds a netbook that runs the company&#39;s Chrome OS during the company&#39;s event in San Francisco 

The first laptops powered by Google Inc&#39;s Chrome operating

A mobile crane prepares to stack a container at Thar Dry Port in Sanand in Gujarat

India&#39;s exports in November rose an annual 26.8% to $18.9 billion, while imports for the month grew 11.2% on the year to $27.8 billion, provisional data released by Trade Secretary Rahul Khullar showed on Wednesday.

Khullar said the figures could be revised upwards.

India&#39;s trade deficit in November stood at $8.9 billion compared with $9.7 billion in October.

India&#39;s trade deficit in August had widened to a 23-month high of $13.06 billion and Khullar had said the deficit could touch $135 billion in the current fiscal year to end-March 2011, higher than his earlier forecast for $120 billion.

Asia&#39;s third-largest economy is targeting close to 15% export growth in the current fiscal.

A mobile crane prepares to stack a container at Thar Dry Port in Sanand in Gujarat

India&#39;s exports in November rose an annual 26.8% to $18.9 billion, while imports for the month grew 11.2% on the year to $27.8 billion, provisi

Conference attendees look over the new Blackberry PlayBook at the Research in Motion Blackberry developer&#39;s conference in San Francisco, California

Research in Motion Ltd said the software in its forthcoming tablet will eventually find its way into its flagship BlackBerry line of smartphones.

RIM Co-CEO Mike Lazaridis said on Tuesday the platform used in its Playbook tablet is also targeted for future smartphones that run more complex, multi-core processors.

&#39;By focusing on the tablet market, we see an opportunity to free where the smartphone can go,&#39; he said at the D: Dive Into Mobile conference.

&#39;When we have multi-core processors across the board, they&#39;ll all be running the Playbook platform,&#39; Lazaridis said. But he declined to say when it would arrive in BlackBerry smartphones.

RIM is launching the 7-inch PlayBook in the first quarter of 2011, in a bid to challenge the dominance of Apple&#39;s iPad.

Conference attendees look over the new Blackberry PlayBook at the Research in Motion Blackberry developer&#39;s conference in San Francisco, California

Research in Motion Ltd said the software in its forthcoming tablet will eventu

SpiceJet aircrafts prepare for landing and take-off at the airport in Mumbai 

The Federation of Indian Airlines (FIA) said late on Tuesday its member carriers have decided to publish different fare levels for each route.

The FIA members include Air India, GoAir, IndiGo, Jet Airways, JetLite, Kingfisher Airlines, Paramount Airways and SpiceJet, it said.

The move comes after a sudden spike in air fares in India prompted the civil aviation sector regulator to issue notices to airlines on fare declaration issue.

The airlines should not be given a &#39;free run&#39; on hiking fares, federal minister for civil aviation Praful Patel had told reporters on November 25.

Air traffic in the country has been on a steady rise in recent months and has increased by 18.3% in January-October.

SpiceJet aircrafts prepare for landing and take-off at the airport in Mumbai 

The Federation of Indian Airlines (FIA) said late on Tuesday its member carriers have decided to publish different fare levels for each route.

An employee walks between parked Hyundai cars ready for shipment at a port in ChennaiCar sales in the rapidly growing Indian market rose 20.8% in November as demand peaked in the festival season, but analysts cautioned the rate of growth would slow against high comparisons, a limited supply of components and a possible rise in interest rates.Car sales grew to 161,497 units in November, according to data from the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM). Sales of trucks and buses, a key indicator of economic health, grew 18.3% from a year earlier.Demand for cars is rising rapidly in India, which is Asia's third-largest economy and is growing at nearly 9% annually. Domestic auto sales have grown 28.4% since April through November YoY.While auto sales in Asia's third-largest economy are expected to continue to grow, that kind of growth is not sustainable when compared to the robust growth witnessed last year.<