The Legrand Group of France has acquired the UPS (uninterrupted power system) business of Numeric Power Systems in a deal worth Rs. 806.44 crore.

Electrical equipment manufacturer, Numeric Power has already entered into an definitive agreement for the sale of its UPS business to Limoges, France-based _3.9 billion firm, Legrand.

India’s leading online retailer, Flipkart has said that it has acquired a smaller firm in the sector, Letsbuy in a cash and stock deal.

The company did not announce the amount for the acquisition. According to estimates, the deal might be worth close to $20 million. Letsbuy offers consumer electronic goods to customers in India. The company was facing problems in raising money and had to enter into a deal with a company to raise money.

The government of India has been able to budge immense pressure from its western allies and has reached an agreement with Iran over how to make payments for the oil imports from the Islamic Republic.

An auto industry body has warned that the annual car sales might record a drop for the first time in ten years in the fiscal year till March 2012 as the figure had last recorded a decrease in 2002.

Vishnu Mathur, director general of the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) said that the auto industry in the country is very much affected by the level of interest rates and the central bank is unlikely to bring them down soon.

Citi has downgraded the shares of Hindustan Unilever from 'neutral' to 'sell' after the company announced earnings.

Citi has also raised target price to Rs 345 from Rs 330. "A decelerating top line implies higher probability of margin pressures in subsequent quarters," Citi said in a note. It said that the fall of 7 per cent in advertising and promotional spending might put pressure on margins.

Healcare sector firm, Piramal Healthcare has acquired additional stake in Vodafone's India unit taking its total stake to about 11 percent in the country's third largest telecom service provider.

Piramal said on Friday that it would buy a 5.5 percent from Essar for about 30 billion rupees or $616.14 million. The company raised 18 billion rupees through commercial papers with 30-day and 75-day maturities to pay a part of the deal to acquire the stake in the British telecom giant's Indian unit.

US-based Walt Disney Company is acquiring the media and entertainment firm UTV Software Communications by purchasing stakes from Rohinton Screwvala, Unilazer and Unilazer HK.

The agreement between Rohinton Screwvala, Unilazer Exports and Management Consultants Ltd, Unilazer Hong Kong Ltd and The Walt Disney Company (South East Asia) Pte Ltd has been terminated starting from 2 February, according to a filing by UTV Software Communications with the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE).

The Starbucks Coffee Company has formed a 50:50 joint venture (JV) with Tata Global Beverages Ltd called `Tata Starbucks Ltd' to tap into the hot beverages market in India.

The new joint venture will own and operate Starbucks cafes across the country. The café chains will be opened with the brand name, Starbucks Coffee 'A Tata Alliance'. The company is planning to open 50 cafes in several Indian cities in 2012 and initially it will launch stores in Delhi and Mumbai.

Heavy equipment maker, Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd (BHEL) has recorded a negative order inflow in the third quarter till December 2011 for the first time in many years.

The company saw order cancellations of Rs. 5,800 crore in the third quarter till December 2011 and this resulted in an order inflow of Rs. 3,500 crore in the quarter. The company said that net sales for the October-December period rose 19 per cent to Rs. 10,550 crore from Rs 8850 crore recorded in the same quarter of the 2010.

The governments of India and Pakistan have given their in-principle approval on having a uniform transit fee for wheeling gas from Turkmenistan.

The gas is to flow through the proposed $7.6-billion pipeline. The agreement for the plan is different from other transit proposals involving the two south Asian neighbors. The disagreements on transit fee as well as the prices of the fuel have stalled progress on other similar projects.

The net profit of Colgate Palmolive India increased by an impressive 74.50 per cent to Rs 1,155.8 million for the quarter till December 31, 2011 as compared to Rs 662.4 million recorded in the same quarter previous year.

The total income for the company increased to Rs 6.90 billion in the quarter till December 31, 2011 compared to Rs 5.77 billion December 31, 2011. It said that focused programmes to enhance efficiencies and reduce costs resulted in strong rousts for the company.

United Spirits Ltd has announced that its hareholders have approved a plan to raise about $225 million through foreign-currency convertible bonds (FCCBs).

The FCCB, which are convertible to equity shares, will include a greenshoe option of up to $50 million, United said in a filing with the stock exchange.

Indian major, Reliance Industries ahs reported a fall of 14 per cent in net profit in the October-December quarter due to falling sales, falling value of the Indian rupee and pressure on margins.

The company said that its net profit fell 14% to Rs. 4,440 crore in the quarter compared to the same quarter last fiscal. About Rs. 1,717 crore of this was earned from the huge cash reserves of Rs. 74,540 crore and it is excluded in the calculation of the profit then it would record a fall of 38 per cent.

According to a new report by United Nations, the Indian economy will grow at the rate of just below 8 per cent in 2012 and 2013 due to growing risks from the problems in Europe and the U. S.

The report titled, "World Economic Situation and Prospects 2012" on Tuesday said that the country's economy is estimated to expand at a pace similar to 2011 in the following two years. It projected a rate of 7.7 per cent in 2012 and 7.9 per cent in 2013.

India's leading IT services firm, Tata Consultancy Services saw its shares dip 3.6 percent this morning amid concerns that its customers in the banking sector will be affected by the global economic uncertainties.

The shares fell 3.6 percent to Rs. 1,064.80 at the time of reporting early this morning on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE). The Rs. 1,064.80 level is its lowest since 25 November when the shares of the Tata group firm fell 5.3 percent. The fall was significant as the benchmark Sensitive Index of the BSE rose 0.2 percent.

The cable unit of the Reliance Communications Ltd is aiming to raise about $1.5 billion through an initial public offering (IPO) in Singapore, according to reports.

Anil Ambani's Reliance plans to sell 75 percent of FLAG Telecom through the IPO and get a valuation of up to $2 billion within the first half of the year, according to a report citing persons close to the matter. FLAG Telecom will be listed as a business trust in the stock market in Singapore.

The central government in India announced its decision to increase import duty on gold and silver jewellery, a move that will result in higher costs of the ornaments for the consumers as most of the hike is expected to be passed to the buyers.

The government said that it will levy customs duty at the rate of 2% on the value instead of a flat rate of Rs 300 per 10 gram. On the other hand, Silver will attract 6% duty, instead of a specific duty of Rs 1,500 a kg earlier.

HCL Technologies has reported an increase of 43.3 per cent in consolidated profit after tax to Rs 573 crore in the quarter till December 2012.

Revenues for the firm rose 13 per cent to Rs 5,254 crore in the quarter compared to Rs 4,651.3 crore in the earlier quarter. In Indian It major reported a net profit of Rs 493.97 crores as compared to Rs 285.97 crores for the quarter till December of 2010.

Muthoot Finance Corporation Ltd is planning to raise about Rs. 500 crore by divesting up to six percent of its promoters holding in the company, according to the Chairman and Managing Director Thomas John Muthoot.

"As part of our aggressive expansion plan, wherein we will be adding nearly 1,000 more outlets by the end of the fiscal, we are looking at a private placement of 5-6 per cent of the promoters' stake in Muthoot Fincorp, which would get us around Rs 500 crore," said Mr. Muthoot.

The Indian Information Technology firms are bracing themselves for a difficult year ahead due to the ongoing debt crisis in the European countries as well as policies in the US states that discourages outsourcing by firms.

Europe is the biggest market for the Indian software firms after the US. Service orders from the region are expected to be low in the coming quarters due to the prolonged debt crisis in the Euro zone countries.