Inflation rises to 4.75%

New Delhi, Nov. 11: Spiralling prices of vegetables, non-food items and manufactured products pushed up the rate of inflation to 4.75 per cent for the week ended October 29 from 4.49 per cent in the previous week. Prices of essential commodities increased during the reporting week. Petroleum prices remained stable and electricity charges softened a bit. The repo and reverse repo rate hikes by 0.25 per cent each from October 26 may have checked the rise in price levels.

IIP growth

New Delhi, Nov. 11: Manufacturing helped the index of industrial production (IIP) log 8.8 per cent growth for the first half of 2005-06, slightly up from 8.3 per cent logged last year.

ONGC block

New Delhi, Nov. 11: The Nigerian government has awarded oil exploration rights to ONGC Mittal Energy Ltd. In return, the firm has agreed to provide $6 billion back-to-back infrastructure support to Nigeria.

Birla case

New Delhi, Nov. 11: The Supreme Court has reserved its verdict on a petition filed by the Lodha group seeking quashing of a criminal complaint filed by a Birla group employee, who has accused R.S. Lodha of conspiring to ?misappropriate? the assets.

Imports up

New Delhi, Nov. 11: Import of sensitive items grew by 5.2 per cent to Rs 6,994 crore during April-August compared with Rs 6,646 crore a year ago.