New Delhi, Oct 15 : The Reserve Bank of India has further cut by one percent, the amount of mandatory cash that banks need to park with it - a move that would unlock Rs 40,000 crore into the financial system and pave the way for lower lending rates.

This is the third time that the central bank has cut the Cash Reserve Ratio in two weeks, bringing the combined cut to 2.50 percent that released a total of Rs 100,000 crore into the cash-starved banking sector so that they can resume normal lending operations.

New Delhi  - India's top private airline, Jet Airways Ltd, Wednesday announced it will lay off 1,900 employees, in what is the single biggest retrenchments in the history of Indian aviation, media reports said.

With the move, Jet Airways that Monday struck an alliance with the country's second-largest private carrier, Kingfisher Airlines Ltd, pruned nearly 15 per cent of its staff.

"It is an unfortunate decision, which all of us in the company regret but it is an attempt to save the company and the jobs of the remaining employees," Jet Airways Executive Director B Saroj Dutta was quoted by the PTI news agency as saying.

New Delhi, Oct. 15 : Heads of Government of India, Brazil and South Africa (IBSA) today agreed to instruct their finance ministers and Governors of Central Banks to meet and establish a coordinating mechanism to deal with the existing global financial crisis.

New Delhi - Leaders from Brazil and South Africa Wednesday blamed rich countries for the financial crisis that was hurting the developing world and called for a new international initiative to bring about structural reforms in the global financial system.

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and South African President Kgalema Motlanthe led their respective delegations from their countries at the third IBSA (India, Brazil, South Africa) summit in New Delhi which focussed on the financial crisis as well as energy and food security.

New Delhi, Oct 15 : Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has said that the Lanka issue is a cause for serious concern after Tamil Nadu MPs’ warned that they will quit if a solution to the Sri Lankan Tamil problem is not worked out within two weeks.

“We believe, the situation in Sri Lanka does not call for military victory but negotiated, political settlement that respects Sri Lankan sovereignty and human rights of ethnic Tamils,” he said.

“We are also concerned about harassment and killing of Indian fishermen in the maritime area between India and Sri Lanka,” the PM said.

New Delhi, Oct 15 : Finance Minister P Chidambaram has announced that the Reserve Bank of India will immediately release Rs 25,000 crore to commercial banks, cooperative banks and RRBs under the farm loan waiver scheme.

He also announced doubling of the investment limit to six billion dollars for foreign institutional investors in corporate bonds.

The series of announcements came on a day when stock markets tanked, with the benchmark Sensex losing 674 points, reversing the two-day winning streak.