Armed with shoot-at-sight orders in some parts of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh and growing apprehension of disruption of poll process by PWG in Andhra Pradesh, the election machinery is geared for today's third phase of polling in 78 Lok Sabha constituencies in five states and 97 assembly seats in AP.

Court notice to Centre, BIFR on Sica

The Delhi high court on Friday issued notices to the Centre, BIFR and others on a petition challenging a public interest litigation seeking to strike down a section of the Sick Industrial Companies (special provision) Act. The PIL had sought striking down of the section 22 of the Sica which provides a wide range of protection to the sick industries including those against recovery of sales tax.

OTCEI plans NSE membership

The OTCEI, on Friday said it had taken steps to float a subsidiary which will become a member of the National Stock Exchange. JH Bosco, managing director of OTCEI said in a statement that thiswould enable its member-brokers to gain access to the NSE's order book. "The subsidiary is expected to take membership on the NSE in three-four months," the statement said.

Centre for financial autonomy to DGS

The Government is toying with the idea of granting financial autonomy to the Directorate General of Shipping, according to senior officials in the DGS. Financial autonomy will also extend the apex body of the shipping industry a certain degree of functional autonomy, the officials said. The idea is to make the directorate totally independent, in monetary terms, from the Government, by allowing it to raise its entire resources on its own, they added.

Reliance case adjourned again

Additional chief metropolitan magistrate Usha Iyer on Friday posted the chargesheets in two CBI cases against Reliance Industries for arguments on November 24. The two cases, registered in November 1985, involve the alleged backdating of letters of credit of the State Bank of India and the StandardChartered Bank, to enable RIL to import 80,000 MTs of PTA in OGL, while the government had decided to amend the policy to bring the item in the limited permissible list.

Bajaj to phase out 2-stroke 3-wheelers

Bajaj Auto will phase out its two-stroke three-wheelers from the local market due to difficulty in meeting the stringent emission norms. The company plans to replace these vehicles with newly developed four-stroke ones. Bajaj has scheduled the launch of new four-stroke three-wheeler in April next year.

Escotel bid for cellular circles

Escotel Mobile, part of the Rs 3,200 crore Escorts group, is in talks with various cellular operators for friendly takeover of at least two more cellular circles, a top company official said. "We have approached various cellular operators through a third party to acquire at least two more circles in the current financial year," Escotel Mobiles chairman Rajan Nanda said.

Tata Tea seeks funding for Tetley deal

Tata Tea is negotiating withthree banks-Holland-based Rabo Bank, Hongkong & Shanghai Banking Corp and Credit Suisse First Boston-for raising loans to fund the proposed Tetley acquisition. This will be in addition to Tata Tea's own contribution of a maximum of 75 million pounds through a special purpose vehicle (SPV) created for making the acquisition.

Rhone-Poulenc sales up 16%

Rhone-Poulenc (India) has registered a 16 per cent growth in sales for the first five months of the current fiscal at Rs 96.46 crore as against Rs 82.94 crore in the corresponding period of the previous year. Rhone Poulenc executive chairman DD Chopra said on Friday that the company had launched five new products and four line extensions.

Indian Rayon turnover slips

The Aditya Birla group company Indian Rayon has recorded a drop in turnover for the first five months of the fiscal due to lower sales realisation in its mainline viscose filament yarn and insulators business. The company's turnover slipped to Rs 450.68 crore in the April-Augustperiod from Rs 458.67 crore in the same period last year.

Sensex gains 47 points

Equities on the Bombay Stock Exchange on Friday recovered their initial losses and posted handsome gains in the wake of late buying by speculators and fresh purchases from FIIs. The BSE Sensex, which gained 47 points, opened moderately down at 4565.17 and dropped to the day's low of 4513.55. However, later in the day it recovered to close at 4618.39.

T-bills devolve

Both the 14-day and 91-day T-bill auctions held on Friday devolved on the Reserve Bank of India. The central bank maintained the cut-off yield of both the 14-day T-bills and 91-day T-bills unchanged at 8.63 per cent and 9.48 per cent. For the 14-day T-bills, the central bank received 13 competitive bids worth Rs 125 crore out of which it accepted three bids worth Rs 26.5 crore.

RBI may reduce CRR: JP Morgan

The RBI will reduce the cash reserve ratio in a bid to ease pressures on liquidity, JP Morgan said in its latest Indian MarketsOutlook report released on Friday. "With industry showing elementary signs of recovery (April-July industrial growth at 5.8 per cent) the RBI will probably take accommodative measures," the report said.

RBI, CII discuss export credit woes

The RBI and CII discussed issues relating to export credit at a meeting of senior bankers and exporters in Mumbai on Wednesday. Low offtake of export credit in foreign currency, procedural bottlenecks restricting export credit and the mixed experiences exporters have had with banks were discussed at the meeting.

Dena Bank plans gold deposit scheme

Dena Bank has made a foray into the gold deposit scheme and has initiated talks with a leading bank in this regard. The bank's CMD Ramesh Misra said that the bank was waiting to sort out some of the problems, like conversion of gold jewellery deposited by customers into gold bullion.

Narendra Lagad has an edge

Trainer Narendra Lagad holds a slender lead of three over his nearest pursuer, DallasTodywalla, in the trainers' table, although the latter has earned a higher amount of stake money for his patrons. As the season winds towards its final phase, the rivalry between this pair will heighten.-- Compiled by Mukund Sharma