As many as 64 people died in Tamil Nadu as heavy rains lashed different parts of the state by the influence of cyclone NISHA which lay 20 km off the Nagapattinam district coast throwing normal life out of gear.

Authorities have evacuated more than 42,000 people from coastal hamlets and low-lying areas in Nagapattinam, Thanjavur and Tiruvarur and housed them in relief camps.

64,000 hectares of crop officially declared flood-hit.

Heavy rains will continue for another 24 hours, informed Meterological office.

Most of the deaths were either due to electrocution or wall collapses, said an official.

Orissa Finance Minister Prafulla Ghadei on Wednesday presented the supplementary budget of Rs 7587.69 crore for financial year 2008-09 in the Assembly amidst protests from BJP legislators.

The State Government will spend Rs 188.89 crore under plan, Rs 5388.93 crore under state non-plan, Rs 98.78 crore under Central plan and Rs 211.11 crore under centrally sponsored schemes.

'This is the highest supplementary budget since independence,' Ghadei added.

Sebi chief CB Bhave asked the stock markets to resume trading on Friday at regular time.

“We have asked the exchanges to be ready to start trading. We have kept our options open, we will take a final call later. No time has been fixed for the decision,” he added.

Mr. Bhave also said that the market regulator (SEBI) is monitoring the situation closely.

The NCDEX would also open today for trading.

The forex, money, bond and commodity exchanges have opened already.

The ongoing financial crisis would not impact the flow of foreign direct investment (FDI) in India. The country is still optimistic to attract more FDI due to strong fundamentals of Indian economy. The views were expressed by the Commerce and Industry Secretary, Ajay Shankar.

Public sector lender, Punjab National Bank has decided to lower the benchmark prime lending rates by 100 basis points on Wednesday. It is the second interest rate reduction by the bank in four weeks. Earlier, it had announced to cut the BPLR by 50 basis points on October 31. Now, industry and general public can get credit at low rates in the present credit struck environment.

The revised interest rate would be effective from Monday. The decision may also encourage other banks to revise interest rates.

President and CEO of Aramco, Mr. Abdallah S. Jum'ah said that the speculations are the major reason for fluctuation in the oil prices and it would take some time for the price stability. Aramco is Saudi Arabia based largest company in the world in oil production and exploration.