It has recently come to vision that investment of Rs 450 crore would be made by Areva Transmission & Distribution India in calendar 2009 in order to increase equipment-making capacity at its three new plants as also existing ones. The company may make further investments, if required.

On Friday, it was stated by Rathin Basu, managing director at Areva T&D India that the construction and commissioning of the three greenfield manufacturing sites is going as planned.

The competitors have yet again been surprised by the State Bank of India (SBI), which earlier created hype in the home loan market and this time it has slashed interest rates on loans for new cars. Furthermore, SBI, the country's biggest bank has also reduced its lending rate against warehouse receipts for farmers.

The industry has been requested by foreign minister Pranab Mukherjee to cut salaries instead of cutting jobs to fight the bad times of financial meltdown across the globe, which has led to major cut in jobs in recent past.

According to Mr. Mukherjee, who also holds the charge of the finance ministry, there was a need to protect the labour force, even if it meant a slight reduction in emoluments.

Tata Motors has appointed the country's largest lender, the State Bank of India (SBI) as an exclusive booking agent for Nano. The ambitious small car due to launch by Tata group soon, is expected to record decent sales.

The Chief Manager of SBI, Jayanta Kumar Sinha, said on Friday, "SBI has been selected as the sole booking agent for Nano."

However, Mr. Sinha refused to disclose details of deal between SBI and Tata and said that official announcement is likely to come in few days.

Government's auditing regulator, the Controller and Auditor General (CAG) has pointed out some serious fallouts in the accounts of some government departments. CAG, in a report on government's accounts for 2007-08, tabled in parliament on Friday, holds responsibility to the finance secretary and the expenditure secretary for the report preparation and anomalies.

The report by CAG, pointing misuse of funds, maintains, "Union Government made a provision for transfer of central plan assistance of Rs51,259 crore directly to state/district level autonomous bodies... for implementation of centrally sponsored schemes."

Power and automation technologies firm, ABB India has declared its financial results, posting 11 per cent increase in its profit at Rs 547 crore for the fiscal ended December 31, 2008. The firm earned total revenue of Rs 6,967.50 crore for the fiscal as compared to Rs 6,001.40 crore during last year.

Meanwhile, the Board of ABB appointed Gary Steel as its director and chairman, who is currently serving as Head of Human Resources and Member of the Group Executive Committee of ABB group of companies.