New Delhi, July 30: The seven-member Lok Sabha committee set up by Speaker Somnath Chatterjee to look into the “cash-for-vote” scandal will hold its first meeting inside the parliament premises today.

The committee is expected collect evidence from the three BJP MPs - Ashok Argal, Fagan Singh Kulaste and Mahavir Bhagora - as also the TV channel - CNN-IBN - that conducted the sting operation.

Headed by the Congress’ Kishore Chandra Deo, the committee is likely to view the original video footage and mike transcripts as part of its inquiry.

New Delhi, July 29 : Defence Minister AK Antony today reacted strongly to the attempt by the Pakistan Army to cross the Line of Control (LoC) and attack an observation post which resulted in intermittent firing between the two sides.

Antony said that the Government is fully prepared to deal with any such infiltrations firmly, and maintained that adequate restraint would be taken to prevent escalation of tension.

New Delhi, July 29 : The Centre today told the Supreme Court that it does not consider the Rama Sethu a national monument.

Senior advocate Fali S. Nariman, appearing for the Centre, told a Bench headed by Chief Justice K. G. Balakrishnan, "As far as we are concerned, the stand of the Government is very clear, that Rama Sethu could not fulfill the criteria of national monument."

Earlier, the Supreme Court had stopped construction work of the Sethusamudram project after writ petitions were filed to counter the demolition of the mythological Ram Sethu believed to have been constructed by Lord Rama.

New Delhi, July 29 : Reacting to the increase in the repo rate and cash reserve ratio, CII stated that these are expected policy responses to inflation, though it may have been possible to await the lagged effects of the last round of monetary actions in June 2008 before taking these further steps.

While there could be a concern on the impact of continuing monetary tightening on investment and growth, the RBI has made it clear that at the present juncture controlling inflation is its priority, CII said in a release issued today.

New Delhi, July 29 : While the offshore (international) BPO market faces pressures with economy-wide slowdown in developed markets, the domestic BPO market is getting ready to take off.

According Arun Jethmalani, CEO, ValueNotes, “Unlike the overseas business, labor or cost arbitrage does not drive the domestic BPO market.

It’s strategic factors such as the need to scale rapidly, focus on core competencies, enhanced productivity and reduced time to market that are driving domestic demand”.

New Delhi - India's benchmark Sensex index tumbled 4.2 per cent in trading on Tuesday afternoon on heavy selling by funds and investors after the Federal Reserve Bank of India hiked its key interest rate.

The 30-share index lost 606.41 points and was trading at 13,742.70 points at mid-session soon after the RBI announced the hike in a quarterly review of the monetary policy.

Market analysts said weak global markets had a negative impact on trading in the domestic bourses.