US cloud on growth

Davos, Jan. 27: Finance minister P. Chidambaram has said the US financial crisis might affect India to the extent that India’s economic growth could come down to 8.5 per cent in the next fiscal against earlier estimates of 8.9 per cent. Participating in a debate at the World Economic Forum meeting here, the finance minister said the US economic slowdown would impact the Indian economy as far as India’s exports were concerned.

Ficci study

New Delhi, Jan. 27: Market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) needs to improve stability of foreign portfolio investment by discouraging speculative flows, according to a Ficci-Ernst & Young study.

Tax evasion

New Delhi, Jan. 27: The income tax department is gearing up to use identity-search technology to manage the swelling database of taxpayers, a move that will make tax evasion difficult and bring to book habitual defaulters.

Iran pipeline

London, Jan. 27: Petroleum minister Murli Deora and his Pakistani counterpart Ahsan Ullah Khan held discussions here on a multi-billion-dollar gas pipeline project involving the two countries and Iran. Both sides were willing to put it on stream.

Birla move

Colombo, Jan. 27: Ultratech Cement, an Aditya Birla group company, will put forward a proposal to buy the five-lakh-tonne capacity Kankesanthurai cement plant at Jaffna, which has been lying closed for more than 17 years.