Washington  - US accounting standards were relaxed Thursday to allow banks to take a longer-term view on the value of toxic mortgage assets, which have already cost the industry more than 1 trillion dollars and lie at the heart of the financial crisis.

The Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB), an industry group, voted that banks would not have to tie the value of mortgage securities to current market prices.

Industry body, Federation of Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industries (FICCI) asked for lower interest rates in the range of 7 to 8 per cent for infrastructure projects in the country, blaming high lending rates a major cause of stagnation in the growth rate.

FICCI Chairman, Harsh Pati Singhania, while addressing the inauguration summit on infrastructure, said, "The rise in interest rates for project financing in the country have increased and are jeopardizing the financial viability of projects under the PPP mode."

Aditya Birla Nuvo, a diversified conglomerate, has notified that it has completed the acquisition of 76 per cent stake in the retail broking firm of the Apollo Hospitals Group.

The group bought 56 per cent in Apollo Sindhoori Capital Investment from the promoters and another 20 per cent through an open offer.

The acquired company is a leading player in the financial services sector with over 10 years of experience in the share broking business. The firm's principal activities are providing financial services, stock broking, commodity broking and related activities.

Pittsburgh-based PNC Financial Services Group Inc. today announced that its Board of Directors will slash the company's quarterly common stock dividend from $.66 to $.10 per share in aim to save $1 billion a year and boost liquidity.

The dividend cut comes as executives at many banks are feeling pressure to reconsider their companies' dividends as their stock prices fall and the market puts a greater premium on capital preservation.

The next dividend is expected to be declared in early April.

"Jobs must be protected even if it means some reduction in compensation at various levels in these times of economic downturn," thundered the Union finance minister, Pranab Mukherjee, at the International Labour Conference recently.

Clearly, the Central government and the finance ministry in particular, seem to practice the contrary.

During the current fiscal year, the incremental growth in the headcount of the bureaucracy is estimated at 91,907.

And, if we go by the interim budget figures, the ranks of those who serve in the finance ministry are expected to go up by 30,315 or by as much as 33% of the additional influx to the corridors of power.