One of India’s largest IT company, Infosys Technologies said the domestic IT industry is likely to grow by 15 per cent this year against 30 per cent growth last year in the wake of global slowdown.

Giving this information, Infosys CEO S Gopalakrishnan said, “Last year the IT industry grew more than 30%, this year it is looking at somewhere in the region of 15%. So, it has slowed down.”

Kerala Chief Minister V. S. Achuthanandan finally expressed regret for his remarks on the family of slain National Security Guard commando Major Sandeep Unnikrishnan.

"I am sad that Sandeep's family was hurt by my remark. I apologise for that," Achuthanandan said at a press conference at Thiruvananthapuram.

"If my comments have hurt Major Unnikrishnan's family, I'm sorry and I regret it. But now the Opposition is trying to misinterpret it. So I thought of giving a clarification," he said.

Indian equities continued to gain momentum on the back of heavy buying action witnessed across all sectors.

Mirroring the sharp increase in values of key stocks in this space, the BSE Realty index gained 10%. Capital goods, oil, power, bank and metal stocks also rallied smartly.

BSE Midcap and Smallcap rose 1.98% and 1.38% respectively.

At 02.25 p.m., the 30-share index Sensex stood at 8,993.39, up 245.96 points, after hitting a high of 8,997.36 and a low of 8,726.71.

Maharashtra Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh, who last month completed four years of his second term in the office, resigned on Thursday.

"I have accepted moral responsibility for Mumbai terror attacks. In a democracy one has to honour people's anguish and anger," he said after submitting his resignation.

The 63-year-old Deshmukh drove to Raj Bhawan and submitted his resignation to Governor S C Jamir, soon after he addressed a press conference.

The Government has raised the interest assistance provided to the public sector banks by one per cent to three per cent for up to Rs 3 lakh short-term crop loans to agriculturalists for this fiscal in order to incentivise the credit flow to farmers. The amount of subvention is to be calculated on the amount of the crop loan disbursed from the date of disbursement or drawal, up to the date of repayment or up to the date beyond which the outstanding loan becomes overdue, whichever is earlier.
 

In a report published in the of the Journal of American Medical Association (JAMA), it was concluded that healthy middle-age women can have up to two alcoholic drinks a day without apparently being at risk of irregular heartbeat. However, more than two alcoholic drinks is associated with an increased risk of irregular heartbeat, also known as atrial fibrillation.