Prime Minister Manmohan Singh speaks during a joint news conference in New Delhi
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said on Friday that no government members were involved in vote-buying to win a confidence vote in 2008 and doubted the veracity of the claims, defying resignation calls over the issue.
The scandal over cash for votes is unlikely to immediately endanger Singh's government, but it increases the pressure on Singh already battling allegations of graft in cases ranging from grant of telecom licenses to apartments for war widows.
The opposition forced parliament to adjourn for a few hours on Friday, demanding Singh resign after a US diplomatic cable obtained by WikiLeaks said his ruling Congress party paid bribes to win the confidence vote in parliament.
'No one from the Congress Party or the government indulged in any unlawful act during the trust vote ... The government rejects the allegation as absolutely false,' Sing
A worker cleans a Tata Motors vehicle inside a showroom in Hyderabad
Tata Motors said on Friday it would increase prices on some of its passenger and utility vehicles due to mounting input costs.
The increase in prices will be effective April 1, the company said in a statement.
'Despite continuous cost control initiatives, the company is being forced to take these increases on account of (a) steep rise in input costs,' the company said.
The price increase in passenger cars will be in the range of Rs 7,000 ($155) to Rs 15,000, or about 2%. Utility vehicles prices would go up by between Rs 13,000 to 36,000, the company said.
Car sales in India hit a record high in February, driven by a burgeoning middle class and easier access to loans, but a hike in interest rates and a jump in input costs due to higher global commodity prices remain concerns for the sector.
Earlier this week, the company said its global vehi
The NASDAQ market site is seen in New York's Times Square
Nasdaq OMX Group Inc's plans to launch a rival bid for NYSE Euronext faces hurdles as differences with potential partner IntercontinentalExchange Inc persist, a leading newspaper reported on its website on Thursday.
Uncertainty in global markets that has led banks to tighten lending terms is also affecting financing for a rival bid to challenge NYSE Euronext's more than $9 billion deal with Deutsche Boerse, the paper said, citing unnamed sources.
Nasdaq and ICE have not agreed on how to share the risk in an offer, the paper reported. It added that at least one Nasdaq director opposed an offer.
These issues have thrown the timing and the possibility of an offer in doubt, the paper said.
Nasdaq was not immediately available for comment, while an ICE spokeswoman declined to comment.
A man walks past a logo of Reliance Communication in Mumbai
Reliance Communications, India's second-largest mobile carrier, said on Friday it added 3.3 million mobile customers in February to have a total of 132.2 million.
The recently introduced Mobile Number Portability scheme in the country allows mobile phone customers to switch mobile service providers based on their requirement and convenience.
Works by Chinese contemporary artists are shown at an art gallery in Hong Kong
China's maiden 'art stock exchange' has halted trade in its top two paintings after their share prices soared 1,700% and ignited concerns that a new bubble was bursting.
Just two months after the Tianjin Cultural Artwork Exchange listed shares in two Chinese paintings, the bourse said it was pulling the paintings from trade to 'reduce investment risks and protect investor rights'.
Wild asset price swings are not uncommon in China, where markets are often dominated by ordinary people who have few viable investment channels and earn little, if any, interest on bank deposits.
In the past three years alone, items as varied as garlic, mung beans and ant-based aphrodisiacs have all experienced investment frenzies.
The Chinese art market was also seen by many critics as a bubble in 2008 when auction prices soared. But the boom in art s
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