A plane prepares to land at an airport in New Delhi.The Group of Ministers (GoM) headed by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee has cleared a proposal to allow Indian carriers to import fuel directly.

Feb 7: Airlines get GoM nod to import fuel directly

UBS predicts poor Q1 over euro zone woes.

The logo of Swiss bank UBS is seen on a building in Zurich.

Swiss bank UBS warned on its first-quarter performance when posting quarterly profit at the bottom end of expectations after a loss at its investment bank, amid uncertainty around the euro zone, Europe&#39;s banking system, and US deficit issues.

"Traditional improvements in first-quarter activity levels and trading volumes may fail to materialise fully, which would weigh on overall results for the coming quarter, most notably in the investment bank," UBS said on Tuesday.

UBS, trying to rebuild confidence after a $2.3 billion rogue trader scandal uncovered in September, said inflows at its flagship private bank should hold up.

"We believe our asset-gathering businesses as a whole will continue to attract net new money as our clients recognize our efforts and continue to entrust us with their assets," it said.

The pri

UBS predicts poor Q1 over euro zone woes

Govt pegs FY12 economic growth at 6.9%

Prime Minister&#39;s economic advisory council chairman C. Rangarajan

The economic growth is likely to fall to a three-year low of 6.9% in FY12, mainly due to sharp slowdown in manufacturing, agriculture and mining sectors, against 8.4% expansion in the last fiscal.

Agriculture and allied activities are likely to grow at 2.5% in FY12, compared to a robust growth of 7% in FY11, according to the Advanced Estimates released today by the Central Statistical Organisation (CSO).

Manufacturing growth is also expected to drop down to 3.9% in this fiscal from 7.6% last year.

The CSO&#39;s GDP growth projection is a tad lower than the 7% forecast made by the Reserve Bank of India in its quarterly monetary policy review last month.

Govt pegs FY12 economic growth at 6.9%

Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee smiles during a news conference in New Delhi.

Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee will present the annual Budget for 2012-13 on March 16, while the Railway Budget will be presented on March 14, a minister said on Tuesday.

The Budget session of parliament will start on March 12, Pawan Kumar Bansal, minister of parliament affairs, told reporters.

The government will present on March 15 the Economic Survey for 2011-12, a document on the state of economy prepared by the economic division in the ministry of finance, he said.

Pranab to present Budget on March 16

A Toyota logo is pictured at the Toyota car dealership Amserv in Tallinn.

Toyota Motor Corp reported on Tuesday a forecast-beating 51% rise in quarterly operating profit, defying the impact of a strong yen and Thai floods, and lifted its cautious annual forecasts closer to market expectations.

For its October-December fiscal third quarter, operating profit at Japan&#39;s top automaker was 149.7 billion yen, exceeding the average estimate of 93.9 billion yen from nine analysts polled by Reuters.

Net profit, which includes earnings at its Chinese joint ventures, fell 14% to 80.9 billion yen.

For the year to March 31, Toyota lifted its operating profit forecast to 270 billion yen from 200 billion yen, and net profit forecast to 200 billion yen from 180 billion yen.