The income tax department would question the tainted founder of beleaguered Satyam Computer Services, B Ramalinga Raju, main accused involved in the largest ever corporate audit fraud in the history of India.

The department, under section 131 of Income Tax Act, would interrogate Mr. Raju on February 21 as it has already received court's approval to examine and record the statement of Raju in order to access the income of firm, believed to be much inflated than original by manipulating accounts.

Deepak Parekh, chairman of Housing Development Finance Corporation (HDFC), said that his bank can cut interest rate in case the Reserve Bank takes steps to reduce lending rates in the market, making the fund cost cheaper for banks.

Hoping reduction in key interest rates, Mr. Parekh said, "Banks are funding (parking) Rs 40,000 crore to Rs 60,000 crore with RBI under the reverse repo window. (This means) there is enough liquidity in the system and that is why there is a likelihood of interest rates coming down."

The ongoing global financial crisis adversely impacted Indian tourism sector, resulting in declining in the number of foreign tourists visiting India to 4.87 lakh in January as compared to 5.91 lakh during the same period last year.

Number of foreign travelers declined 12.5% in December 2008, posing a threat to country's hospitality industry, already facing tough situation in the midst of recessionary waves across the world.

India's third largest car manufacturer, Tata Motors entered in an agreement with public sector bank, the Central Bank of India, to avail finance facilities for all categories of vehicles.

The bank would offer loan at interest rate of 10.5 per cent for 3 years tenure and 11.5 per cent for more than 3 years, covering 85 per cent of the road price of car.

Gold prices in the domestic market touched a new peak level at Rs 15,650 following increase in its prices in the international market due to heavy purchase by investors.

The precious metal started rising after the breakout of global financial crisis due to failure of leading financial institutions in United States. Global slowdown propelled investors to invest in gold considering it as a safest mode of investment due to plunge of stock markets and low interest rate regime.

Reliance Industries is likely to start supply of natural gas from KG-D6 basin from April this year, helping the country to reduce its gas import bill and satisfying its energy needs. The gas obtained from RIL would be used for household needs and transport sector, supplying gas through pipelines first time in the country.

Union Petroleum Minister, Murli Deora said, "It has been decided to supply the first 40 million standard cubic meters per day of gas to meet the shortfall of exiting gas-based urea plants, LPG plants and power plants."