K. S. Raju and P. K. Mahadevan, original promoter and director respectively of Nagarjuna Finance Limited were arrested by the Hyderabad police for allegedly defaulting on the payments to depositors of Nagarjuna Finance (NFL), a non-banking financial institution (NBFI) promoted by the group. Along with Raju, another director, Pundi Krishna Swamy Mahadevan, was also arrested.

The Sensex has bounced back into the positive terrain after a fall from higher levels on the back of strong buying action witnessed across key stocks including Reliance Industries, Tata Motors, ONGC, Ranbaxy Laboratories, NTPC, TCS, ACC and Infosys Technologies.

Some of the major gainers in the Sensex were Grasim Industries, State Bank of India, Wipro, Jaiprakash Associates, Tata Power, ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank, Hindustan Unilever and BHEL.

At 14:19 hrs, the BSE barometer gained 2.12 points at 9834.51, while the broad-based Nifty stood at 2990.50, up 9.30 points.

As prices in the global market continued to decline, vegetable oil imports increased 30 per cent in November compared with the same period a year ago. Total veg oil imports in the country shot up to 555,342 tonnes in November this year as compared to 427,912 tonnes in the corresponding month last year. Of this, edible and non-edible oil comprised 519,032 tonnes and 36,310 tonnes, respectively. Import of RBD palmolein was reported at 137,959 tonnes as compared to 30,014 tonnes in the same month last year. The share of refined oil increased to 27 per cent from 25 per cent in October this year.

Owing to a dip in the passenger car sales, Toyota Kirloskar Motor Ltd (TKM), a joint venture between the Japanese auto giant Toyota and the Kirloskar Group, has decided to cut production by 30% during the current month.

Mr. Hiroshi Nakagawa, Managing Director, TKM stated, "This month, we are cutting production by 25-30 per cent. We will review the market scenario during the month. Accordingly we will decide for the next months."

The UK-based Axon Group has been acquired by HCL Technologies for £441 million ($658 million), marking the largest ever tech buyout by an Indian firm. HCL Axon, the new entity formed after the buyout, is now chasing outsourcing deals worth $1.2 billion.

The acquisition makes HCL's SAP business three times bigger than that of Satyam, its closest SAP competition in the domestic market. Satyam's revenues from SAP implementation is said to be about $150 million.

After Deepika Padukone, Indian Cricket Team Skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni is again in the news for his romance with 27-year-old Telugu movie star Lakshmi Rai.

According to rumor mills, Lakshmi spent considerable time with Dhoni at the hotel where he put up for the Test match, which concluded yesterday.

Lakshmi reportedly visited Dhoni’s hotel room to join him for dinner a few nights ago, but security functionaries refused to let her in.

But, it was only when Dhoni himself explained that she was his guest that they let her in.

However, Lakshmi denied any romantic involvement, and said they are just good friends.