With the aim to increase the salary of the employees by 20%, the Gujarat government has taken up the decision to set up a babus’ committee on suggestion of the Centre's sixth pay commission award.

Jay Narayan Vyas, spokesperson of the Govt. informed soon after the Cabinet meeting was over, “The secretaries' committee will submit its report to the Cabinet sub-committee, formed early this year on what the sixth pay commission may mean to Gujarat.”

Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia said that the retardation in the Indian financial system has been on projected lines and a healthy recovery is expected by the coming fiscal year thanks to the measures being taken by the administration.

"The slowdown was not unexpected," Ahluwalia told, referring to the sharp decline in the development of India's gross domestic product (GDP) to 7.9% during in the first quarter of 2008, as against 9.2% in the same period of the last year.

The negotiations of a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) has completed in the recent meeting of the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) in Singapore. The meeting remained successful as most of the members including India were agree on the final draft of agreement. The deal would be finally signed in December at the India-Asean summit at Bangkok. It is expected to attend by PM Manmohan Singh. It takes six years to complete the talks on FTA.

New Delhi - Indian economic growth slipped to 7.9 per cent in the first quarter of the current fiscal year, its slowest pace in over three years as rising borrowing costs affected manufacturing and other sectors, news reports said Friday.

India's gross domestic product (GDP) was 7.9 per cent in the three months to June 30, compared to 9.2 per cent over the corresponding quarter of the previous year, data released by the government's Central Statistical Organization showed.

The moderation in GDP growth was in line with expectations of the economists as the federal Reserve Bank of India had hardened interest rates to control double-digit inflation, the PTI news agency reported.

For the first time in over 17 months, Indian currency weakened past Rs 44 per dollar owing to rumor that importers will raise their dollar purchases in order to settle the import bills.
    
Oil rates surged 52 cents to settle at $115.11 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX).

The refiners comprising Indian Oil Corporation (IOC), India’s biggest oil marketing company took the advantage of the currency’s rally to an almost week’s high on August 22 to purchase dollars at a cheaper rate.

New Delhi, Aug 22 : The Centre on Friday asked steel producers to cut prices as and when there was further fall of rates in the global markets.

P K Rastogi, Secretary, Ministry of Steel, told reporters that Global steel prices have already softened and if the trend continued, it called for a reduction in the domestic market too.