The CBI team barged into the room of the chief commissioner when he was allegedly accepting Rs 10 lakh from Noida-based industrialist Ashok Chaturvedi. The commissioner had demanded the bribe from the industrialist to settle one of his pending sales tax cases.
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NASSCOM revises targets
New Delhi: NASSCOM on Wednesday forecast a 30 per cent growth for software exports in the current fiscal pegging them at Rs 37,000 crore. Software exports for the quarter ending September 30 are at Rs 8900 crore as against Rs 7440 crore a year back -- an increase of almost 20 per cent.
NASSCOM chairman Phiroz Vandrevala said despite the slowdown, business verticals like insurance, banking and manufacturing will remain the key drivers of growth for the software companies.

Though NASSCOM remains confident of growth in the front line software companies, the future is unlikely to be good for smaller companies
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LNM takes over Romanian steel plant
London: London-based NRI industrialist L N Mittal's group has taken over Romania's largest steel plant, Sidex.
With the acquisition of the five-million-tonne capacity plant, the Mittal Group has emerged as the fourth largest steel producer in the world with a production capacity of 29 million tonnes, employing 110,000 people worldwide.

Currently, the group has privately-owned steel-making operations in Kazakhstan, Algeria, Indonesia, US, Canada, Mexico, Trinidad, France and Germany.
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US Fed Reserve cuts rate
New York: The US Federal Reserve has slashed key interest rates to their lowest level in 40 years and left the door open to more rate reductions in a further effort to revive the US economy.

The half-point cut sent the federal funds rate to two per cent from 2.5 per cent, and the symbolic discount rate to 1.5 per cent from two per cent.

The lowering of rates is expected to help businesses and consumers by cutting borrowing costs and stimulating economic activity.
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Concorde returns to the skies
Paris: The first commercial flight of Concorde took off on Wednesday after a break of nearly 16 months. The flights were stopped last year after 113 people were killed in an Air France crash in Paris.

The Air France Concorde, with 92 passengers on board, took off from Paris for a flight to New York. To show their confidence, French transport minister Jean-Claude Gayssot and Air France chairman Jean-Cyril Spinetta were aboard the passenger flight.

About an hour later, British Airways flew an invitation-only flight from London. British prime minister Tony Blair will be aboard a third special flight which will fly him and his team to US where he is meeting American president George W Bush.
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