The rupee posted its biggest weekly decline in nearly 14 years after swaying within a large band on Friday as Indian markets extended losses as concerns remained over the euro zone’s growth prospects.

Following Nationalist Congress Party chief and Union agriculture minister Sharad Pawar’s opposition to the separate Vidarbha, pro-Vidarbha leaders have accused him of backstabbing. Jambuwantrao Dhote, who led the first major public agitation in 1971 for the demand of separate Vidarbha, has said that the NCP chief has made baseless statements regarding the demand.

Acting on several complaints and tip-offs about sub-standard fuel and medicines being sold by government institutions, officials of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) conducted a special drive from May 12 to May 20, raiding government-run hospitals as well as fuel depots across Maharashtra.

The acquisition of Bank of Rajasthan (BoR) by ICICI Bank may lead to a relook at the valuations of other small private sector banks.
On Thursday, the stock prices of private sector banks such as Karnataka Bank, South Indian Bank and Federal Bank were up 2-5 per cent.

Cement major Grasim has recorded a net profit of Rs 654 crore for the March quarter, up 15 per cent over the previous year. The numbers are not strictly comparable because Grasim had demerged its cement business to subsidiary Samruddhi Cement in October ’09.

The high bids for 3G spectrum made by telecom companies will haunt them for some time to come. The high licence fee coupled with the capital expenditure required for rollout of 3G services will push some of the firms into debt.

Two top gainers amongst the large cap stocks on Thursday were ONGC and Oil India. Both the companies saw their share prices soar by 8-9 per cent — following the government’s decision to raise natural gas prices. These companies produce over 50 million cubic meters/day of natural gas which will now be sold at $4.2/unit instead of the earlier price of $1.9/unit. Analysts estimate that this can push up the profits of both the firms by up to 20 per cent.

In an attempt to complete the census work as early as possible, the state government has deputed thousands of government and civic employees to conduct the survey on time.

In a suicide pact, a couple hanged their two children and later themselves from an iron pipe in their terrace at Mulund on early Wednesday.

Forty days after Maharashtra home minister R.R. Patil announced that the perpetrators of the German Bakery blast in Pune would be arrested soon, the case has seen no headway whatsoever.