New Delhi - Increasing numbers of Indians are travelling abroad for business and leisure and Asian countries are their favourite destinations with Singapore and Dubai heading the list, according to a survey released Wednesday.

Most Indian-outbound travellers come from a rapidly expanding urban middle class with larger disposable incomes, the Neilson India Outbound Travel Monitor 2008 said. The survey was conducted in partnership with the Pacific Asia Travel Association.

Asian countries are the most popular destinations for Indian travellers, who spend an average of 1,789 dollars per person per leisure trip.

Singapore is the most popular destination, followed by Dubai, Australia and Malaysia.

New Delhi - The collapse of major Wall Street firms is likely to result in a tightening of liquidity, adverse impact on the banking sector and a slowdown for information-technology firms that serve customers in financial sectors, analysts said Wednesday.

The Reserve Bank of India, which had net foreign reserves of 288.8 billion dollars in the week ending September 5, has already taken measures to support the rupee which rose by 60 paisa against the dollar on Wednesday.

The central bank also barred Lehman's India subsidiary from remitting money to its parent company.

New Delhi - Shares of Ranbaxy Laboratories Ltd, India's largest drugmaker, plunged Wednesday after the United States banned the sale of 30 generic medicines made in two India-based manufacturing units.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the US food and pharmaceutical watchdog, issued an import alert Tuesday that blocked entry of the drugs, including generic versions of the antibiotic Cipro and cholesterol medicine Zocor, citing manufacturing deficiencies.

Case of Niketa Mehta brought Medical Termination of Pregnancy (MTP) Act under public eye. The 37-year old MTP Act, allows termination of pregnancy from 12 to 20 weeks, if two medical practitioners are of opinion that “there exists a substantial risk that, if the child were born it would suffer from physical or mental abnormalities so as to be seriously handicapped.”

New Delhi, Sept 17: Nepal’s Prime Minister Prachanda has said that India has agreed to replace the 1950 Nepal-India Peace and Friendship Treaty with a new one.

Talking to media persons here on Tuesday, Prachanda said that both Nepal and India have agreed to form a joint task force to study and sort out the issues that need revision.

"The joint task force will work out and prepare the draft of a new treaty and amend the existing treaties, and the bilateral relations will proceed in a new way," he added.

Islamabad, Sept 17 : Alleging that India had slowed down the water flow of the Chenab river, thereby violating the Indus Water Treaty, Pakistan is learnt to have decided to move the World Bank in a last ditch effort for arbitration asking for huge agricultural loses.

Sources in the Pakistani Ministry for Water Resources said that India reduced water flow in the Chenab River thereby hitting hard the kharif crop in Pakistan, and rendering huge financial losses to Pakistani farmers.