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At Cape Town Two days ahead of the second inning of Indian Premier League tournament beginning, a festival carnival got the mega event off to a festive start on Thursday.

Star players—Yuvaraj Sing, Bret Lee, , Kevin Pietersen, Gilcrist, Kumar Sangakkara and Sanath Jayasuriya-and high profile franchise owners today converged on an cloudy day in South Africa's most scenic city.

The high profile owners of various teams present during the festival included Shah Rukh Khan of Kolkata Knight Riders, Priety Zinta-Owner of Punjab Kings XI, Shilpa Shetty-Co-owner of Rajasthan Royals.

Commissioner of the cash-rich league Lalit Modi was also present, where all the teams were parading on the streets of Cape Town.

Even though the Indian league was shifted to South Africa, the crowds were making the street lively like in India.

Mumbai Indians face Chennai Super Kings and defending champion Rajasthan Royals face Bangalore Royal Challengers in the opening match on April 18.

All players looked to be in good spirits, soaking in the attention.

Indian Bank’s margins already under pressure due to the global economic hold up, the RBI has provided them a breather by revising the method of calculating the current value of restructured loans.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has provided a rest to banks by revising the method of calculating the current value of restructured loans as banks' margins are under pressure due to the global economic slowdown.

The existing treatment compares the post-restructuring fair value of the loan with the book value. In a falling interest rate scenario, the difference is too low while in a rising interest rate the difference is too high, the RBI said.

As per the new formula, the corrosion in the fair value of the advance should be computed as the difference between the fair value of the loan before and after restructuring. The existing formula has resulted in higher provisioning due to rise in the rate of interest during the last few years. It has been decided to modify the formula for computing diminution in the fair value of restructured loan, the central bank said in a notification.

At present, while restructuring the loans, banks take into account the benchmark lending rate, Prime Lending Rate, which have been on a rise during the last few years, the RBI said. It further said that it is adding to the financial difficulties being fa ced by banks due to the current downturn. The proposed formula, according to the RBI, moderates the swing in the diminution of present value of loans with the interest rate cycle.

Mumbai airport on Friday become the fourth airport in the country to be allowed to levy a advance fee from passengers to bridge the deficit in funds for moderation the facility.

The government approved collection of Rs 100 from outbound domestic passengers and Rs 600 from worldwide passengers from April 1. The fee would be in force for four years, but be reviewed after six months.

The Mumbai airport modernization project cost is pegged at Rs 9,802 crore and the Mumbai International Airport Ltd has been allowed to raise up to Rs 1,543 crore through the development fee. However, if the project cost escalates beyond Rs 9,802 crore, MIAL would have to tap other fund sources.

New airports in Hyderabad and Bangalore have been charging a development and DIAL, which manages the New Delhi airport, too was allowed to charge the development fee, although the move has come in for criticism from global airlines' body IATA.

Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel had yester on Thursday said such fees could be imposed even at airports being modernised by the state-owned Airports Authority of India. The massive aviation infrastructure required in India "cannot be made on such a scale without the contribution from passengers and other stakeholders, " he had said. - PTI

India were final in on their first test series victory in New Zealand since 1968 as they comprehensive their lead to 233 runs at the close of play on the second day of the third and final test on Saturday.

Zaheer finished with five for 65 from 18 overs as New Zealand conceded a 182-run lead after they had bowled India out for 379 earlier in the day.

The company, who hold a 1-0 series lead after a 10-wicket victory in the first game in Hamilton, were 51 for one at the close after Zaheer Khan's seventh five-wicket haul helped bowl the hosts out for 197 in their first innings.

The visitors extended that lead with only the loss of explosive opener Virendra Shehavag, who blasted three boundaries in his seven-ball innings of 12.
Sehwag was caught by first slip Ross Taylor when a vicious bouncer from Chris Martin brushed his glove.

Gautam Gambhir was on 28 while Rahul Dravid was on nine as the shadows lengthened across the ground.

New Zealand reverts back from daylight saving time on Sunday, which will undoubtedly shorten the remaining days' play by at least 30 minutes in the fading light.

Zaheer took advantage of a blustery northerly wind to produce some swing and sharp bounce, though New Zealand's batsmen did not help themselves with poor shot making.

"He had an extra yard on his, looking up at the screen it was his normal speed, but he bent his back and hurried the batsmen up a little bit," New Zealand's Taylor said of Zaheer's bowling. "He bowled extremely well.

"Only batting 65 overs is very disappointing and also not giving our bowlers enough rest is also disappointing," he added.

India's wholesale price index raised 0.44 percent in the 12 months to March 7, below the previous week's annual rise of 2.43 percent, government data showed on Thursday.Inflation in India drastically fell to a two-decade low of 0.44 per cent in the first week of March as food and fuel items turned cheaper.

Wholesale price-based inflation declined by 1.99 percentage points from 2.43 per cent during the week ended February 28, fuelling expectations that the Reserve Bank of India would cut interest rates to spur the economic growth.

Inflation rate for food, beverage and tobacco was slower at 2.7 percent in March from 3 percent in February; housing and repairs, 1.4 percent from 2.3 percent; fuel, light and water, 1.2 percent from 1.5 percent; services, 2.2 percent from 2.4 percent; and miscellaneous items, 1.8 percent from 2 percent.

The annual inflation rate within the National Capital Region alone also eased by 0.3 percentage point at 2.1 percent in March from 2.4 percent in February. In areas outside Metro Manila, the inflation rate was also slower at 2.3 percent in March from 2.7 percent in February.

After a year of spiraling prices, rising inflation, India is now heading towards deflation. The Indian economy may go into deflation by April as inflation is likely to fall below zero percent.

India's wholesale price index raised 0.44 percent in the 12 months to March 7, below the previous week's annual rise of 2.43 percent, government data showed on Thursday.Inflation in India drastically fell to a two-decade low of 0.44 per cent in the first week of March as food and fuel items turned cheaper.

Wholesale price-based inflation declined by 1.99 percentage points from 2.43 per cent during the week ended February 28, fuelling expectations that the Reserve Bank of India would cut interest rates to spur the economic growth.

Inflation rate for food, beverage and tobacco was slower at 2.7 percent in March from 3 percent in February; housing and repairs, 1.4 percent from 2.3 percent; fuel, light and water, 1.2 percent from 1.5 percent; services, 2.2 percent from 2.4 percent; and miscellaneous items, 1.8 percent from 2 percent.

The annual inflation rate within the National Capital Region alone also eased by 0.3 percentage point at 2.1 percent in March from 2.4 percent in February. In areas outside Metro Manila, the inflation rate was also slower at 2.3 percent in March from 2.7 percent in February.

After a year of spiraling prices, rising inflation, India is now heading towards deflation. The Indian economy may go into deflation by April as inflation is likely to fall below zero percent.

Software exporter HCL Technologies on Monday said it has bagged a 350-million-dollar IT outsourcing services deal from media and marketing house Readers Digest Association. The complex transformational engagement will cover the end-to-end IT landscape of RDA from IT infrastructure to applications.

"IT is a key enabler to our business. We expect that HCL will bring down cost of operations significantly, while improving services and bringing cutting-edge technology and capabilities to transform our IT functionality and service," said Al Perruzza, senior vice-president, global operations, IT and business redesign, RDA.

As part of the engagement, HCL Technologies would provide application development and infrastructure support across the application stack of Oracle, open technologies, main frame, infrastructure support for network, security, storage, end user computing and data centres, HCL said in a statement.

Applauding the win, Som Mittal, president of the IT industry body, Nasscom said, "We congratulate HCL for this landmark engagement". Mittal added, "This deal reinforces the fact how global sourcing helps economies to take advantage of the talent and new opportunities, which will help revive the current economic situation."

The recessionary environment in many economies of the world, especially the US and Europe, has forced global corporations to squeeze their IT spending with a complete freeze on budgets in certain cases. With the situation worsening, Indian IT companies are coming by very few large-size contracts along with significant pricing pressures on existing contracts. Apart from the sheer size of the deal, the present market scenario adds to the significance of the deal.

As per the quarterly results of the company, HCL had two clients with revenues contribution of over a $100 million. The $2 billion company has around 315 active clients. "RDA partnership is a unique service offering in which HCL blends all its outsourcing strengths applications and infrastructure capabilities, industry knowledge, and global reach, to help RDA achieve fundamental transformation at the enterprise level," said Sanjeev Nikore, corporate vice-president, HCL Technologies.