Dun & Bradstreet forecasted further slowdown in the ITeS and BPO as a result of global financial crisis. The Banking Finance Services and Insurance (BFSI) sector is also under pressure due to slowdown and tight monetary policy. Companies are trying to mitigate their dependence on banks and finance institutions by cost cutting measures including retrenchment.

Sydney/Mumbai, Nov. 27 : Six members of the New South Wales (NSW) Department of State and Regional Development remain unaccounted for in Mumbai, where terrorists struck late on Wednesday, killing over a hundred people and injuring over 200.

The Daily Telegraph quoted NSW Police Deputy Commissioner Nick Kaldas as saying that the situation regarding the held up Australians "remains fluid" but was sure that half of the delegation of 13 that arrived in Mumbai on Sunday was safe.

"There are about half a dozen we have not been able to get in touch with," he said.

The Acting Commissioner said it was difficult to say whether the ones unaccounted for were safe.

Heavy rains, under the influence of the depression over the Bay of
Bengal, lashed different parts of Tamil Nadu. In the event, normal life
has been disrupted and already twenty eight people have lost there
lives.

According to the police most of the deaths have been either due to electrocution or wall collapses.

The Meteorological office has predicted that the depression, centred
about 50 km off the Vedaranyam coast, is likely cross the coast on
Wednesday evening between Vedanrayam and Pamban.

Canberra, Nov. 27 : Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd on Thursday described the attackers who planned the synchronised strikes across southern Mumbai as "cowards, absolute cowards and murderers", and warned that the number of Australian casualties from terrorist attacks in India might rise above the two people reported injured so far.

According to The Daily Telegraph, Rudd told Parliament that he had spoken to Australian High Commissioner to India John McCarthy to get an idea of the situation on ground in Mumbai.

The Orissa government today gave its nod to the projects worth Rs 1,27, 727 crore for the industrialization of the state. New projects would be started in the field of steel, aluminium, power, downstream and ore beneficiation.

Islamabad, Nov 27 : Pakistan has reportedly condemned last night’s multiple terror strikes in Mumbai, in which at least 80 people have been dead so far.

Pakistan Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani condemned the gun and grenade attacks. In a message he said: “We condemn these attacks,” reported the Daily Times

While the US State Department called the attacks ‘horrific’, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said the incident was ‘outrageous’ and expressed solidarity with India.