In a move which marks the re-entry of Panasonic into the mobile handset market, the Japanese handset maker announced the launch of its first smartphone - the P51 – on Thursday.

Powered by a 1.2 GHz quad-core processor, the Panasonic P51 handset features a 5-inch screen; 1 GB RAM; and 8-megapixel back-side camera; a 1.3-megapixel front-facing camera; the Android 4.2 ‘Jelly Bean’ operating system; and 4 GB of onboard storage capacity, which can be expanded via the microSD card slot.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) should become the regulator for all loans, including home loans, State Bank of India (SBI) Chairman Pratip Chaudhuri said.

Speaking at the fifth ICC Banking Summit, Mr. Chaudhuri said that there was no justification for having different regulators for different verticals like industrial loans, vehicle loans and home loans.

Speaking on the topic, he added, “Perhaps, the objective of the regulations is better served with RBI itself becoming the sole regulator for all loans, including home loans.”

With the arrival of the mango season, the health inspectors are increasingly seizing artificially ripened mangoes that are harmful to the health of the customers.

According to some report, the Nokia EOS phone has been spotted by a fan and the device is believed to be Windows Phone similar to the company’s 808 PureView phone.

A portal focussed on Windows Phone, WMPowerUser said it has received some information about the device from someone who has seen a prototype of camera central device. The portal quotes the source to say that the phone's body is made of polycarbonate material just like Lumia phones and would be as thick as Lumia 920 but with a lesser weight.

Czech Republic’s Skoda Auto, a part of the Volkswagen group, has indicated that it might be planning to stop the production of its Fabia model at its plants in India.

“Skoda is in the process of strengthening its model range and as a part of this process, Skoda is contemplating a pause in production of the Fabia in India,” a company spokesperson said in a statement.

The Competition Appellate Tribunal (Compat) on Friday styed an order asking 100 cement makers to pay a combined penalty of Rs. 6,300 crore for allegedly acting in a cartel.

The tribunal said that the cement firms are required to pay 10per cent of the fine imposed by the authorities. The tribunal asked the cement companies to pay Rs. 630 crore of the combined fine that was imposed by the Competition Commission of India (CCI) in June previous year.

The shares of pharmaceuticals companies recorded a fall today following an order by the Department of Pharmaceuticals that would put price control of drugs and make them cheaper in the country.

According to the latest information available, the prices of 652 formulations under 27 therapeutic areas like anti-allergic (cetrizine), cardiac (aten), gastro-intestinal medicines (ocid), pain-killers (paracetamol) and anti-diabetic drugs (insulin) are expected to come down in the country following the government order.

AAI chairman V. P. Agarawal has hinted that the Chennai airport is likely to be privatised following the instructions from the civil aviation ministry to lease out the airport to private players.

Authorities in the state of Haryana have agreed to release more raw water to Delhi from Tajewala cutting the share of of Uttar Pradesh in the Yamuna.

The move would help the national capital increase water levels at its Sonia Vihar and Bhagirathi water treatment plants where the treatment was halted due to low raw water supply from the Ganga Canal. The government will lift the water from Haryana from Wazirabad and supply it to Sonia Vihar and Bhagairathi water treatment plants.

The one-man committee, headed by former Chief Justice of Punjab and Haryana High Court Mukul Mudgal formed to investigate the Walmart's lobbying activities with American lawmakers for expanding into the Indian market, is set to submit its report this week.

NIIT Technologies has said that its net profit has risen 22 per cent to Rs. 56.6 crore during the fourth quarter of the financial year 2012-2013 as the company recorded growth in all sectors.

Marissa Mayer, the Chief Executive Officer of Yahoo! has hinted that the company is planning to acquire Tumblr for about US$ 1.1 billion to expand its presence in the social media.

Mayer said that the discussions are going on with Tumblr's David Karp for the proposed acquisition. The takeover will allow Yahoo! to expand its reach to the internet users with 15 billion page views a month. Tumblr has been doing well with the marketers and investors where Yahoo! has faced problems in recent times.

Government-backed ONGC is considering selling stakes in some of its deep-water blocks to energy giant Royal Dutch Shell, ONGC Chairman & Managing Director Sudhir Vasudeva revealed on Friday.

Selling of stakes to Shell is being considered as part of a strategy to hit a broad partnership with the global energy giant. The discussions are, however, currently at a very preliminary stage.

Beating street expectations, India's leading cigarettes firm ITC Ltd on Friday announced a year-on-year increase of more than 19 per cent in its quarterly net profit.

ITC announced that its net profit grew 19.4 per cent to Rs 1,927 crore in the three months ended March 2013, from Rs 1,614.36 crore in the corresponding three months of the previous year.

In spite of gestation costs to its new FMCG business and investment in areas like paper and packaging and hotels; the company enjoyed growth in all segments.

The Obama administration on Friday gave a conditional nod for exporting of domestically generated liquefied natural gas (LNG) to countries which don't have Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with the U. S.

The US' decision to export LNG to non-FTA countries from Freeport Terminal on Quintana Island in Texas has major implications for India because will now be able to import much needed gas from the US.

In order to further enhance trade relations with Japan, India on Friday urged Japan to make more investments in its infrastructure, electronic hardware and other sectors.

Commerce & Industry Minister Anand Sharma invited Japanese companies to explore more business opportunities in India and enjoy benefits of mutual growth.

Mr. Sharma is on an official visit to Japan to participate in India Investment Roundtable meeting, organised by the commerce ministry and industry body CII.

The Parliamentary Standing Committee on finance, headed by BJP leader Yashwant Sinha, has advocated closure of all chit fund firms across the country.

The panel on Friday grilled Finance Secretary R S Gujral as well as Revenue Secretary Sumit Bose on the increasing menace of chit fund frauds.

Both Gujral and Bose admitted that regulators failed to exchange information, which made any action against such frauds difficult. Both officials also stressed that there was a need to revamp the whole system to check such frauds.

Global credit rating agency Standard & Poor's (S&P) on Friday reiterated its negative outlook on India's credit rating, dealing a tough blow to the government which had recently pitched for an upgrade.

S&P maintained the country's sovereign credit rating at BBB minus (BBB-) and A-3 for long term and short term, respectively. The country's credit outlook, which has long been the government's biggest concern, is still negative, merely one notch above the so-called `junk' status.

The outgoing Chief Executive Officer of chip maker, Paul Otellini has admitted that Intel has missed an opportunity to offer its processor inside the first iPhone.

Otellini said that Apple had approached the chip-maker to supply a chip for the iPhone but the two companies did not reach an agreement on the matter because of the difference on the price that Apple was willing to offer and the price estimates by Intel. He said that his gut feeling was to say yes and also expressed regret on the decision not to go ahead with the business deal with Apple.

India's leading carmaker, Maruti Suzuki India (MSI) has asked the government of India to work to exclude the auto sector in the country from the preview of the proposed Free Trade Agreement (FTA) between India and European Union (EU).