News Digest: Top Newspaper Headlines

Business Standard

Rail fares may face service tax

Move likely to fetch government Rs 1,000 crore.

IT feeds SEZ gold rush

Of the 117 proposals approved by the Centre so far, over a third (44) are from IT companies.

Bankers trip over student loans

Education loans at Rs 8,000 crore, sticky assets touch 6-8%.

The Economic Times 

Three's company, rest's crowd

From bikes to airlines to cement, Troikas corner 80% of market

Mukesh, Anil seen in fray for NRI stake in Cochin Airport

Expansion plan attract attention, GMR also interested.

IDBI wants to buy a PSU bank, seeks govt help

Potential candidates include Indian, UCO, Union, Central and Dena Bank.

The Hindu Business Line

ICICI Bank hikes benchmark PLR to 11.75%

ICICI Bank has hiked its benchmark prime lending rate (PLR) by 0.5% points to 11.75% with immediate effect. The bank may be the first to hike the PLR after the RBI's quarterly review of the monetary policy last month.

Govt notifies guidelines for FDI in single brand retailing

The notification states that FDI up to 51% in retail trade of single brand products would cover only products that are branded during manufacturing and are sold under the same brand internationally.

ADC collections exceed target, cross Rs 8,000 crore

A steep increase in the call traffic is seen as the prime reason.

The Financial Express

Overseas firms may get to raise funds in India

The government plans to allow overseas companies to raise funds in domestic capital markets and shorten the approval time for local companies selling shares, SEBI chairman M Damodaran said.

Weak banks out of bounds for foreigners

RBI is keen that domestic banks be given preference over foreign banks when it comes to taking over even weak local banks.

ONGC notifies first Nelp find

ONGC has made the first ever notification of a gas discovery to the Directorate General of Hydrocarbons. The discovery has been notified in the two wells DWN-U-1 and DWN-A-2 drilled by it in the Krishna Godavari deepwater block KG-DWN/2.